Schools closures in the event of a Covid outbreak should be a 'last resort', according to the HSE

HSE CEO Paul Reid in DCU Glasnevin Campus, Dublin, delivering the HSE weekly operational update on the response to Covid-19. Photograph: Leon Farrell / Photocall Ireland

It is hoped that closing schools as a result of a Covid-19 outbreak will be a last resort rather than an automatic reaction, the HSE’s latest operational briefing has heard.

With schools across the country re-opening this week, much of the focus from the HSE On Thursday was on how the inevitable outbreaks within educational settings will be managed.

Addressing the conference in DCU, Dr Abbey Collins, the HSE’s lead on Covid in schools, said that how each instance of an outbreak in schools is handled will be a bespoke exercise, with each dealt with on a “case by case basis” in the same manner as other outbreaks, such as those in direct provision centres.

“It is not a tick-box exercise,” she said. “Infection transmission does not work like that. 

"All schools are different and ascribe to different categories, leading to different complex layers that need to be managed.”

She said different parameters will apply, such as how infected children may have accessed toilets, how their playtime works, and the like.

“Where do their parents work? That may be relevant. There are lots of different points of information to consider in order to help the schools and children through the process," she said.

“That means really engaging with the facility, and seeing where the children may have transmitted to, and where they may have got it from."

She said she is “hopeful that schools won’t have to close”.

“If that is necessary then we will take the appropriate action. I am hopeful it won’t be,” Dr Collins said.

Just 2.7% of all cases in Ireland involve people under 15 

Chief clinical officer with the HSE, Dr Colm Henry, said that while human behaviours have changed, “there has been no change in the nature of the virus”, adding: “It’s still every bit as transmissible and potentially lethal.”

He said, however, that “the risks of keeping the schools closed now outweigh the risk of Covid for children”.

He cited research that shows that on a European level just 5% cases of the virus have involved under-15s, despite their representing 25% of the population. In Ireland the figure is lower again, at 2.8%.

“We know now that children represent a low level of cases, with very few hospitalisations, and are generally asymptomatic,” Dr Henry said.

"Our priority is to not have a widesweeping initial approach to remove all children," Dr Collins said. "That can be counterproductive." She said she hopes that the coming interactions with schools will be "more measured".

The briefing heard of new HSE research of the societal effects of Covid restrictions on children, including an increase in anxiety levels due to a lack of socialisation. Primary level children are the worst affected, Paul Reid, HSE CEO, said.

Mr Reid also emphasised that the executive’s strategy is now that people need to learn to “live with Covid”, rather than any eradication of the virus.

"We need to give people hope as we look forward,” Mr Reid said. “We are in a very different phase now. What we're looking at now is living with Covid, and we're looking at doing so for a considerable period of time."