New information has revealed that over 150 children in West Lothian schools tested positive for Covid-19 over a two month period this year.
The Courier sent a Freedom of Information request to Public Health Scotland (PHS) asking about Covid-19 in West Lothian schools.
It revealed that as of March 22 there had been 158 children who tested positive for Covid-19 at schools in the region from January 3 to February 28 of this year.
We also learned that there were 45 schools with at least one pupil returning a positive coronavirus test in the timeframe.
This is a significant increase from a previous FOI we sent to Public Health Scotland, that revealed that there were 294 pupils across 55 schools in the nine months from March 2020 to January 2021.
The secondary schools with pupils returning positive coronavirus infections in January and February were: Armadale Academy, Bathgate Academy, Broxburn Academy, Deans Community High School, Inveralmond Community High School, James Young High School, Linlithgow Academy, St Kentigern’s Academy, St Margaret’s Academy, West Calder High School and Whitburn Academy.
And the primary schools were: Balbardie Primary School, Blackridge Primary School, Carmonddean Primary School, Croftmalloch Primary School, Dedridge Primary School, Eastertoun Primary School, Falla Hill Primary School, Harrysmuir Primary School, Kirkhill Primary School, Longridge Primary School, Linlithgow Primary School, Linlithgow Bridge Primary School, Mid Calder Primary School, Murrayfield Primary School, Parkhead Primary School, Peel Primary School, Polkemmet Primary School, Pumpherston and Uphall Station Primary School, Riverside Primary School, St Anthony’s Primary School, St Columba’s Primary School, St John Ogilvie Primary School, St Jospeh’s Primary School (Whitburn), St Mary’s Primary School (Bathgate), St Mary’s Primary School (Polbeth), St Ninian’s Primary School, Simpson Primary School, Southdale Primary School, Stoneyburn Primary School, Whitdale Primary School and Williamston Primary School.
Pinewood School also had at least one confirmed case over the period we asked about.
It was revealed today that Peel Primary School in Livingston has closed for one week after an outbreak, with pupils returning to remote learning.
A spokespersons for West Lothian Council said: “The whole point of community testing and testing within schools is to identify positive cases so individuals can take the correct and appropriate action to self-isolate. Therefore it is inevitable, at the current time, that positive cases are identified within communities.
“All schools in West Lothian adhere to the national guidance and confirmed cases within our school communities over the past year have been small. We have around 30,000 pupils in West Lothian so the figure of 158 amounts to about 0.5% of the school population and this is in-line with the figures seen across the country.
“Furthermore, as Public Health Scotland have previously confirmed, cases of Covid-19 among school pupils are not the same as Covid-19 incidents within schools. This is because not all pupil cases identified will have been present in school during their infectious period. PHS have also stated that, in presenting data, it’s important to note that the occurrence of multiple cases within the pupil population of a given school does not necessarily imply that these cases are linked or attributable to transmission within the school.”
He added: “We have liaised directly with parents at specific schools where there have been confirmed cases, and this will continue going forward.
“The council follows advice from NHS Public Health at all times. We will not be commenting further on individual cases and we are fully focused on allowing our young people to return to their school to continue with their learning and development.”
Public Health Scotland analysed the information from West Lothian’s 28,000 school pupils.
A PHS spokesperson explained: “The period reviewed for this analysis was 03/01/21 to 28/02/21. The two data sources for analysis are the Electronic Communication of Surveillance in Scotland (ECOSS) for Covid-19 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test results from both NHS laboratories in Scotland and UK laboratories, and the Child Health Systems Programme-School (CHSP-School) dataset to identify the current school pupil population and their school of attendance.
“The CHSP-School dataset identified 86 West Lothian schools, attended by 28,357 pupils.
“276 pupils were identified as being the wrong age for Primary, and ONE identified as being wrong age for secondary.
“These children were excluded from analysis as they may not be attending the school they were attached to. This data quality issue will be solved once the CHSP-School dataset is fully updated at the end of the school year. This left 28,080 school children that could be linked with test data for analysis.”
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