70 of 4,000 schools in Ireland is infected by Covid-19

Last updated Oct 30, 2020

Covid infection has spread within 70 of the country’s 4,000 schools, health chiefs believe.

70 out of 4,000 schools in Ireland is now infected with Covid-19 virus, says the health chief.

The public health team has carried out testing in 600 schools, where Covid was identified.

Dr Abigail Collins, HSE Public Health Specialist said that there was a spread of the virus within the schools. They found that 12.5pc of this cases- one in eight, there was spread of infection.

At the same time, it is also evident that the virus spread in schools are much lesser than in other public sectors.

Collins said that within the context of school they could see only a minor level of spread compared to nursing homes and all.

“We have not seen any very large numbers, e.g. hundreds of students. It has been very contained” she said.

While addressing at a HSE briefing, she also said that only five schools were found to be in a serious condition and these schools might be closed to control the outbreak.

She said that the HSE had conducted a Public Health Risk Acescent in the country’s 4,000 schools and from the study they came to know that 85% of the schools in the country was not affected by Covid-19 in any chances.

Around 15,000 close contact samples from schools were tested and out of which 384 came out positive with an overall detection rate of 2.5%

Whenever a Covid case is identified in a school, the HSE conducts a PHRA and evaluate the situation. Then they will decide what to do and which all persons should be traced and kept aside for testing.

Dr. Collins said that the next step after the primary evaluation depends on the circumstance of each cases. Also, she said that not everybody who has a confirmed case of Covid-19 from within a school community has been within an educational facility within the infection time period.

“If that is the case then we don’t need to do a risk assessment and it won’t be routinely done for every single school who are aware of case of Covid-19,” she said.