'Solidarity is the most powerful tool in fighting Covid-19' - 61 new cases in Ireland

Professor Philip Nolan. Picture: Brian Lawless/PA Wire

As a further 61 Covid-19 positive tests were confirmed last night, a health expert has insisted reopening schools is highly unlikely to create a breeding ground for the virus.

The chairman of the National Public Emergency Team's modelling group, Philip Nolan, said there was very little international evidence to show schools opened in other countries are major sites for transmission.

He pointed out that in the past two weeks, around 100 children aged five to 14 have tested positive in this country for the virus.

Prof Nolan said it was likely that if two children happened to test positive in the same school they would have caught the virus in their respective homes, rather than from each other.

There were 30 outbreaks of coronavirus in English schools after they reopened, analysis has found.

A Public Health England report, published yesterday, said the reopening of schools following the easing of their lockdown was associated with a total of 198 confirmed Covid-19 cases, 70 in children and 128 in staff.

However, the report said there was a "strong correlation" between community coronavirus incidence and risk of outbreaks in educational settings, even during a period of low Covid-19 incidence.

But it added this was not surprising because increased community transmission provided more opportunities for the virus to be introduced into educational settings.

Prof Nolan added research in Germany pointed to infected children acquiring the virus in their homes.

The 61 new cases of Covid-19 were confirmed last night by the Health Protection Surveillance Centre and are down on previous days. Fortunately, there were no further deaths to add to the 1,777 already confirmed.

The number of confirmed new positive tests were down from 156 on Saturday and 79 on Friday.

The breakdown of the latest positive results shows 39 in Dublin, 13 in Kildare and the remaining nine spread between Cork, Kerry, Laois, Limerick, Longford, and Wicklow.

Of those, 23 are confirmed to be associated with outbreaks or are close contacts of a confirmed case, while 16 have been identified as community transmission.

The breakdown of the newly confirmed cases show that two-thirds were under the age of 45.

The additional positive tests bring the number of confirmed cases in the country to 27,969.

Sam McConkey, head of the Department of International Health and Tropical Medicine at the Irish Royal College of Surgeons, said he expected more “targeted” local restrictions to come into force in the coming weeks to suppress outbreaks in certain areas.

Prof McConkey, who is also a consultant in infectious diseases at Beaumont Hospital Dublin, added that restrictions could include the authorities clamping down on house parties.

Meanwhile, Ronan Glynn, acting chief medical officer at the Department of Health, said he could understand that at times people can feel powerless against Covid-19.

“But we are not. Each of us has a range of simple tools at our disposal — knowing the risks, washing our hands, not touching our faces, keeping physically distant, avoiding crowds, limiting visitors to our homes, and wearing a face covering,” he said.

Dr Glynn added that the most powerful tool of all remains our solidarity with one another; by encouraging each other to stick with the basic measures "and by continuing to act and adapt together we can suppress the transmission of this virus once again."