Up to 10 days before impact of masks on Covid cases can be assessed

Pupils wearing face masks during lessons at Ballintemple National School, Crab Lane, Cork. Picture: Larry Cummins

It will take seven to 10 days before any impact of mask-wearing among younger children is seen on case numbers, a Nphet member has said.

New guidelines for children aged from nine upwards to wear masks while at school and other settings took effect this week. It follows advice from the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet).

Professor of Statistics at the University of Limerick Cathal Walsh said parents should expect to see a reasonably “early signal” as to how effective masks are in this case.

“We will see it in the next week to 10 days if masks have made a difference in terms of the rate of growth in the number of cases in those age groups,” he said.

Prof Walsh, a member of the Nphet Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group, described advice for children over nine to also wear masks on public transport and in shops as “sensible” in light of the current “unsustainable level” of the Delta variant.

“We have to make every effort now before the full extent of Omicron arrives to reduce the levels of infection in the community,” he said. “I think there is real concern about the sustained growth of infection rates within children.” He said this growth has been gradual but consistent.

“They aren’t as well protected as adults so any interactions are going to be a bit more risky, but there has been an effort to try and ensure the schools remain open,” he said.

Communication to principals

Meanwhile, Education Minister Norma Foley was quizzed about the communication sent to principals late on Tuesday evening outlining the regulations around mask-wearing and the confusion that followed for many schools. 

Appearing before the Oireachtas education committee, Ms Foley said the education sector had “consistently” followed public health advice. She said the nature of Covid means that public health advice changes.

“When it does, and when it asks us to pivot in a particular direction, we do that.” The decision to accept Nphet’s recommendation on Thursday to implement face coverings in schools was made by the Cabinet on Tuesday evening, Ms Foley said.

“As a consequence of that, after Cabinet, the department obviously had to wait for the advice, and the expertise that would come up from the Health Protection Surveillance unit, as we have always done in terms of implementation.” 

“We received that late on Tuesday evening, and on receipt of that the guidelines were issued to schools.” 

Ms Foley also confirmed she has met with the Department of Health to discuss the rollout of vaccines for under-12s. “In the very first instance, they were very clear to say that they await confirmation from Niac,” she told the committee.

“They are very proactively organising in anticipation of the announcement of Niac in this regard and they have a variety of different measures potentially in place to make it happen.”