Nphet to make decision on asymptomatic children attending school

A report on how many children were infected and contact traced in each educational setting will be published next week.

Covid-19 positivity rates among children are falling even as the numbers going for tests are spiralling, the HSE has said.

However, a decision on whether asymptomatic close contacts should continue to be removed from school will only be made next week by the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet), according to the HSE.

Public health teams have now worked with 1,011 primary schools and creches to trace children potentially exposed to the virus, as well as 732 secondary schools since the start of term, a briefing on the Covid situation in schools has been told.

A report on how many children were infected and contact traced in each educational setting will be published next week, the HSE lead for testing Niamh O’ Beirne said.

Children aged under 14 now make up a “high percentage” of testing referrals, she said, describing it as “a real surge” in numbers.

“Between our walk-in testing sites and self-referrals alone, we have received 32,000 children in the last seven days. It does continue to rise,” she said.

“But on the other side what does continue to fall is the positivity rate," she said adding that for children in the community coming forward for testing, the positivity rate is 6%. This rate was 13% earlier in the month.

However, acknowledging the challenges facing schools she said clinical staff are being moved from general contact management into the schools system.

HSE chief clinical officer Dr Colm Henry said: “I feel more optimistic than concerned at the moment.” 

Public health doctor and HSE lead on schools Dr Abigail Collins said the Nphet decision on restricting movements is “an urgent discussion” as it has “significant consequences” for children. Nphet will also discuss mask-wearing for all children.

She urged parents of symptomatic children to keep them at home as doctors are reporting cases where children are returning to school while waiting on test results.

The teams tracked the impact of the Delta variant when creches and summer schools were open, she said.

“Obviously with the numbers we have now, all those components (of the system) are challenged, but we have no reason to believe from the evidence over the summer that the picture we see within the classroom is particularly different to the picture before the schools broke up,” she said.

Addressing complaints school staff are doing contact tracing in the evenings when the HSE helpline is closed, she advised there is no clinical need for tracing to happen as soon as a case is identified.

It takes up to two weeks for Covid-19 to manifest following contact, she said.

“So to wait until 9am the following morning is (advised),” she said. “I know children are coming into school but these are well children. The actual case with Covid-19 is no longer in the school setting.” 

Meanwhile a Department of Education spokesman said over 35,000 carbon dioxide monitors are being distributed, with schools receiving one or two deliveries depending on size.

“This approach maximises the number of schools that are provided with monitors as early as possible,” he said. “To date over 18,000 monitors have been dispatched to schools across the country. The target remains to have all monitors delivered by the middle of September.”

Meanwhile, the Department of Health confirmed a further 1,292 Covid-19 cases on Thursday.

Currently, there are 331 people hospitalised with the virus, of which 54 are in ICU.