No return to preschool for under-5s until January 11 as Covid-19 'out of control' 

Children’s Minister Roderic O’Gorman announced the reopening of pre-school services will be  delayed to allow more time for families to reduce their contacts.

Children under the age of five will not return to pre-school until January 11 as the Covid-19 virus is now “rampant” and “out of control” in Ireland, according to the HSE.

Following the Cabinet decision to keep schools shut until Monday week, Children’s Minister Roderic O’Gorman announced the reopening of pre-school services under the scheme would be also be delayed to allow more time for families to reduce their contacts.

Mr O’Gorman said as part of the national effort to cut contacts, the reopening of the Early Childhood Care and Education scheme (ECCE) has been delayed, however, childcare and childminder facilities will open on Monday for the children of essential workers and vulnerable children.

“I am asking that children outside these categories stay home next week,” he said.

As part of the national effort to cut contacts, the reopening of ECCE is postponed until 11 Jan. Other childcare & childminder facilities will open Jan 4, for children of essential workers and vulnerable children. Asking that children outside these catagories stay home next week

— Roderic O’Gorman TD (@rodericogorman) January 1, 2021

The announcement means the “vast bulk of services” will remain closed until January 11, according to Teresa Heeney, the chief executive of Early Childhood Ireland. She does not believe fees will increase as a result of the delayed reopening as the Department of Children has told providers it would not recoup the funding for the pre-school programme for next week. 

Ms Heeney said: “It’ll be very challenging, it will be very complex and there will be a very limited number of places available in general. I’m hoping that’ll be matched by lower demand.”

Welcome decision by @dcediy today. Next few days will be busy for many operators- risk assessing, planning pods, contacting staff & parents to establish capacity. Establishing how to open safely for frontline workers & in compliance with Public health & regulations is complicated https://t.co/2NZoyzw9PU

— Teresa Heeney (@TeresaHeeney) January 1, 2021

As a further 1,754 cases of Covid-19 and 11 more deaths were reported by the National Public Health Emergency Team on Friday, HSE chief executive Paul Reid said 3,000 Covid-19 cases per day are likely as the testing system catches up with reported cases.

There were more than 5,000 people awaiting calls about their Covid test results on Thursday. Sources have said the decision to stop testing for close contacts happened quite suddenly on Thursday afternoon as the scale of the numbers became apparent.

Mr Reid said the health service was on "high alert" as Covid-19 cases rise and contact tracing and Ireland's testing system tackle the growing coronavirus infection in the community

There have now been 93,532 cases of Covid-19 reported in the Republic since the start of the pandemic last March, and 2,248 deaths.

More than 9,000 additional cases are expected to be reported in the coming days as positivity rates exceed 20%, the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) said.

Nphet said up to 70 people were being admitted to the State’s hospital system each day and the number of people in hospital with the disease passed the 500-mark on Friday.

There are now 47 people seriously ill in ICU with Covid-19. Some 9,000 new cases are expected to be reported in the coming days because of a backlog in Christmas reporting, Nphet said.

Speaking on Friday, Dr Colm Henry, HSE chief clinical officer said the virus was out of control and at a conservative estimate 1,200 hospital admissions were expected by mid-January and 2,000 by the end of January.

We have very high levels of community transmission of #COVID19

We find, test and trace to isolate cases/restrict contacts as CONTAINMENT or ‘control’ actions.

With the disease now not in control, we focus our public health actions on MITIGATION . https://t.co/o0YrfPTPxM

— Dr Tony Holohan (@DrTonyHolohan) January 1, 2021

Despite the worrying trends, a number of educators have said teachers and parents “fervently” want to return to the classroom, but are afraid of speaking out.

Hugh Cronin, principal of St Catherine’s National School in Ballynoe, Co Cork, said he has spoken with dozens of teachers over Christmas who fervently want to return to school, both for themselves and for their schools. “They are afraid to express that opinion publicly for fear of a pile-on by those who, legitimately, hold a different opinion. We're only hearing one side,” he said in reference to the number of medical voices on the national airwaves.

There needs to be a balanced, data-driven approach to reopening this term, he said.

"The amount of stress, anxiety that's on everyone in society at the moment, children need to be able to go into school every day to a stable, secure, and consistent environment,” he added.

"The relevant education stakeholders need to sit down with the public health experts and the Department of Education and look at the new situation, which is very different now to the first lockdown,” he added.