Tanaiste Leo Varadkar has confirmed that children will be returning to school on Monday as planned despite the surge in cases among those aged 5-12.
Concerns have been raised among school staff and parents around the imminent return, but Mr Varadkar says antigen testing is being considered for pupils who are close contacts.
As reported by the Irish Times, no changes will be made ahead of Monday but the public has been told if a much more serious deterioration is seen schools would shut down.
“We’re not anywhere near that point yet,” Mr Varadkar said.
“And the thing we need to prioritise for kids in school because they’ve missed enough school already.
“I think we’d need to see a very serious deterioration in the situation before we’d get to that point.”
Before the mid-term break, the Irish National Teachers Organisation called on the government to reinstate Covid-19 rules in schools across the country.
In September, a major easing in close contact measures left many uneasy as two primary schools had to shut their doors as large numbers came down with the virus.
Changes that Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly announced back in September included;
- automatic contact tracing of close contacts in childcare facilities and primary education being discontinued
- testing of asymptomatic close contacts in childcare facilities and primary education discontinued
- children aged 13 or under, who are identified as close contacts in childcare, educational settings, special education settings, or other non-household settings and who are asymptomatic no longer being required to restrict movements, unless indicated by the local public health team
- children aged 13 or under who are identified as household close contacts in household settings are still be required to restrict movements and get tested, regardless of symptomatic status
- public health advice remains that any child aged 13 or under who displays symptoms consistent with COVID-19 should rapidly self-isolate and not attend school or to socialise until 48 hours after they are symptom-free
INTO’s John Boyle spoke to RTE before the break and said these changes were “premature”.
He confirmed that over a period of a few weeks there were more than 1,350 positive cases of Covid-19 among 5 to 12-year-olds.
Mr Boyle then called for a start to antigen testing in schools and asked for a review of the decision on facemasks.
Mr Varadkar said NPHET would now consider if these rule changes needed to be examined again and said that the use of antigen testing is now being reviewed.
