A faster contact tracing system is to be rolled out in schools after the mid-term.
The Department of Education says a national network of new school teams, to be led by public health professionals and supported by education officials, will be established from November 2.
This aims to speed up the time it takes to alert schools to close contacts of positive cases, as well as supporting principals to find substitute teachers and special needs assistants in cases linked to Covid-19 absences.
Health authorities are also understood to be considering rapid testing for Covid-19 in schools, which has been a key demand of teachers’ unions.
The current PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests are regarded as the gold-standard of testing for the virus, but are expensive and time-consuming.
Other countries have introduced cheaper testing methods with quicker turnaround and on-the-spot results, but which have lower levels of accuracy.
The State health watchdog, the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) has advised that these antigen tests typically show “reduced diagnostic accuracy” compared to the current tests.
