How will schools be able to go back in September?

ldy4mxonucwsq6

A bit more information on how it will work for any future cases/clusters we see.

Formation of a national outbreak control team and an approach based on risk assessment and localised interventions.

https://www.thejournal.ie/clusters-holohan-increase-5109845-May2020/

JTMan

Interesting, 103 cases in Israel after schools reopened ...

https://twitter.com/EricTopol/status/1266976828549238785

Perhaps an isolated event.

Boggles

JTMan wrote: »

Perhaps an isolated event.

Not isolated according to the head of public health.

The announcement came after 115 new cases were discovered on Friday and the ministry reported 79 new infections Thursday, following weeks in which new diagnoses had hovered at around 20 or less a day. Friday’s announcement marked the first time that the 100 mark has been breached since May 2. That lull allowed Israel to relax most lockdown restrictions.

At a Friday press conference in Tel Aviv, health officials said the sharp rise was mainly at schools, most of which were allowed to reopen earlier this month.

Sigal Sadetsky, head of public health services in the Health Ministry, said 31 schools across the country had been identified as “centers” of the new cases.

“It’s clear to us unfortunately that the conditions at schools… don’t allow for non-infection of coronavirus

ldy4mxonucwsq6

JTMan wrote: »

Interesting, 103 cases in Israel after schools reopened ...

https://twitter.com/EricTopol/status/1266976828549238785

Perhaps an isolated event.

It's a pity there's no way to detect a superspreader before they infect other people but superspreaders aren't anything new when it comes to disease.

In this pandemic its looking like about 10% of cases have caused around 80% of the total infections. We've seen this highlighted with South Korea as well where one person infected approx 100 others.

Hopefully they can fine tune things and testing/contact tracing along with localised isolation/quarantines will prevent any major spikes and disruption.

wirelessdude01

Zahir Bitter Cellist wrote: »

Hopefully they can fine tune things and testing/contact tracing along with localised isolation/quarantines will prevent any major spikes and disruption.

Here's hoping it doesn't end up like the farce that is the UK rapid response track and trace.

Have a look at the article from I think The Guardian today which shows the absolute mess they have made of it.

ldy4mxonucwsq6

wirelessdude01 wrote: »

Here's hoping it doesn't end up like the farce that is the UK rapid response track and trace.

Have a look at the article from I think The Guardian today which shows the absolute mess they have made of it.

The UK is a mess, and it's worrying how easy access is between here and there.

Every time I see a story about them easing restrictions I am in disbelief, way too soon imo. Their initial herd immunity strategy which was u-turned just makes you wonder if anyone is actually leading their efforts. Now they outsource contact tracing and are paying the tracers a bit more than minimum wage???

It's one place I would not like to be at the moment, and it's a big risk to our own control of the virus here.

bettyoleary

Zahir Bitter Cellist wrote: »

The UK is a mess, and it's worrying how easy access is between here and there.

Every time I see a story about them easing restrictions I am in disbelief, way too soon imo. Their initial herd immunity strategy which was u-turned just makes you wonder if anyone is actually leading their efforts. Now they outsource contact tracing and are paying the tracers a bit more than minimum wage???

It's one place I would not like to be at the moment, and it's a big risk to our own control of the virus here.

Do you think due to the close proximity of the Uk and the difficulty of setting up a border with them it may have an impact on how we ease restrictions?

bettyoleary

bettyoleary wrote: »

Do you think due to the close proximity of the Uk and the difficulty of setting up a border with them it may have an impact on how we ease restrictions?

I'm just mentioning that a few days ago you were pointing out the UK were opening schools. I'm unsure why you mentioned this but I think it was to justify your opinion that Ireland should be doing this also? Was it or was it not?

ldy4mxonucwsq6

bettyoleary wrote: »

Do you think due to the close proximity of the Uk and the difficulty of setting up a border with them it may have an impact on how we ease restrictions?

Hopefully not, I don't think it will impact the lifting but it'd be an awful situation if we did so well to suppress the virus for it to be able to enter again so easily.

I do think it increases our risk having ease of travel with a country that I don't think has a good grasp on controlling the virus yet.

bettyoleary

Zahir Bitter Cellist wrote: »

Hopefully not, I don't think it will impact the lifting but it'd be an awful situation if we did so well to suppress the virus for it to be able to enter again so easily.

I do think it increases our risk having ease of travel with a country that I don't think has a good grasp on controlling the virus yet.

And do you think it will be just from the UK that the virus will enter again?

bettyoleary

Zahir Bitter Cellist wrote: »

The UK is a mess, and it's worrying how easy access is between here and there.

Every time I see a story about them easing restrictions I am in disbelief, way too soon imo. Their initial herd immunity strategy which was u-turned just makes you wonder if anyone is actually leading their efforts. Now they outsource contact tracing and are paying the tracers a bit more than minimum wage???

It's one place I would not like to be at the moment, and it's a big risk to our own control of the virus here.

Would you advocate locking down the border with NI and the UK to keep out the virus?

bettyoleary

bettyoleary wrote: »

Would you advocate locking down the border with NI and the UK to keep out the virus?

Do you think that Uk and NI are the biggest obstacle for opening up Ireland and of course sending our kids back to school? If so could you elaborate a bit further.

bettyoleary

bettyoleary wrote: »

Do you think that Uk and NI are the biggest obstacle for opening up Ireland and of course sending our kids back to school? If so could you elaborate a bit further.

Also, why do you think that the UK will have easier access to Ireland than any other country?

ldy4mxonucwsq6

bettyoleary wrote: »

Also, why do you think that the UK will have easier access to Ireland than any other country?

Because its a common travel area between the UK and Ireland and even with the new rules we will still be allowing people to enter from mainland UK and allowing them to travel onward to NI.

Same applies for anyone landing in Dublin say for onward travel to mainland UK, they won't have to follow the new rules.

UK has also exempted people travelling to the UK from Ireland from its period of self-isolation for international travellers because of the CTA.

Plus we have a border that could never be completely shut with NI even if we wanted to.

FishOnABike

bettyoleary wrote: »

Would you advocate locking down the border with NI and the UK to keep out the virus?

An impossible task.

FishOnABike

Multiple schools in Israel forced to close due to CoViD-19, only two weeks after reopening.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/amid-spike-in-virus-cases-schools-in-outbreak-areas-set-to-shutter/

At a Friday press conference in Tel Aviv, health officials said the sharp rise was mainly at schools, most of which were allowed to reopen earlier this month.

Sigal Sadetsky, head of public health services in the Health Ministry, said 31 schools across the country had been identified as “centers” of the new cases.

“It’s clear to us unfortunately that the conditions at schools… don’t allow for non-infection of coronavirus,” she said.

I think This pretty much explodes the agenda driven myths that schools are low risk or that children are any less susceptible or infectious than adults when it comes to CoViD-19

Opening the schools is the easiest part of it. Keeping them open will be more difficult. There's no point in opening them up in a way that doesn't allow them to reliably stay open.

There's no reason to believe things will be any different here if we don't take measures to address the risk

https://www.thejournal.ie/clusters-holohan-increase-5109845-May2020/

On Tuesday, Dr Holohan was asked specifically what would happen in the case of an outbreak in a school and if it would be the case that the school would close down at a local level.

The chief medical officer said: “If that’s the right response at a point in time, then that might be the response exactly.

morebabies

With partial reopening of schools today in the UK :

"A study from the National Foundation for Educational Research, based on 1,200 school leaders, suggests:

46% of parents will keep children at home
50% of parents in schools in disadvantaged areas will keep children at home
25% of teachers are likely to be absent because of health issues for themselves or their families."

https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/education-52854688

ldy4mxonucwsq6

morebabies wrote: »

With partial reopening of schools today in the UK :

"A study from the National Foundation for Educational Research, based on 1,200 school leaders, suggests:

46% of parents will keep children at home
50% of parents in schools in disadvantaged areas will keep children at home
25% of teachers are likely to be absent because of health issues for themselves or their families."

https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/education-52854688

Just looking at the UK schools reopening and I can't say I blame parents for keeping kids home, it's such an unnatural environment right now and their cases are still quite high.

Fingers crossed when our time comes to reopen it won't be necessary for such regimental measures. Parents will have to make the right choice for their kids.

thomasdylan

morebabies wrote: »

With partial reopening of schools today in the UK :

"A study from the National Foundation for Educational Research, based on 1,200 school leaders, suggests:

46% of parents will keep children at home
50% of parents in schools in disadvantaged areas will keep children at home
25% of teachers are likely to be absent because of health issues for themselves or their families."

https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/education-52854688

One of the few things the UK got right was keeping schools open for children of essential workers. It's something that should be planned for here in case things get very bad later in the year.

Sammy2012

I'm genuinely curious here but do people think that things are going to get so bad in Winter that schools will have to close again. As everyone keeps saying for most of the population this is like a bad flu. For some no symptoms at all. So how will it be any different to the numerous vomiting bugs and other illness that children get?? I've thought in classes where half the kids are absent due to one thing or another. I've caught bugs from my own kids. Never caught them from my class. Now I'm talking about the general population here not the vulnerable but if it doesnt affect most people why the need to close schools?

I have a relative who had the virus along with their baby and their partner didn't as they were not tested even though it was the partner who gave them the virus as they were the close contact. No symptoms at all. So for most people it wont have any affects.

Murple

The worry is not that people will get this virus. The point of lockdown was not to prevent individuals catching Covid-19 itself. It was to reduce the spread and to prevent hospitals getting overwhelmed. Every winter, we have hundreds on trolleys every day in our hospitals. With Covid-19, we can't allow that as it is so contagious.
If we get to the winter months and we get a spike in winter flu, winter vomiting bugs and Covid-19, we will most likely have to consider closing not only schools but retail, entertainment etc. as well, as our hospitals will rapidly become overwhelmed. When our hospitals get overwhelmed, every person who needs emergency hospital attention is put at risk, including women giving birth, people needing treatment after an accident, babies and children needing rehydrating due to a stomach bug etc. We would get to the situation they were in in Italy about 2 months ago.
I have heard quite a number of doctors and nurses commenting 'this is like nothing we've seen before'. I don't think we should disregard this.

s1ippy

Schools may reopen in July for children with special needs https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/schools-may-reopen-in-july-for-children-with-special-needs-1.4267465

I wish they would stop using such vague language and going off half-cocked about such emotionally charged issues. So many children with special needs, through no fault of their own, are stuck at home for months on end with their parents going out of their minds. These articles probably only serve to give false hope until they've been fully and entirely arranged and organised, so why announce them when it's so likely to be cancelled? So people will have temporary goodwill to politicians? Click on articles? Only the absolute dregs of society would target this group with false messages of hope only to pull the rug out. Although many of the parents I know who have children with special needs know better than to have any optimism anymore.

Treppen

thomasdylan wrote: »

One of the few things the UK got right was keeping schools open for children of essential workers. It's something that should be planned for here in case things get very bad later in the year.

They got it right?
www.tes.com/news/coronavirus-revealed-least-26-teachers-have-died-covid-19%3famp

Boggles

Sammy2012 wrote: »

I have a relative who had the virus along with their baby and their partner didn't as they were not tested even though it was the partner who gave them the virus as they were the close contact. No symptoms at all. So for most people it wont have any affects.

If the partner wasn't tested and didn't get sick how do you know they had the virus?

jrosen

If schools are only able to come back on reduced level then I think there needs to be priority given to those students who need it the most, to the classes (years) that need it the most and to kids who's parents work.

thomasdylan

Treppen wrote: »

They got it right?
www.tes.com/news/coronavirus-revealed-least-26-teachers-have-died-covid-19%3famp

Your link doesn't work. I think the article you were linking to just stated the number of deaths of teachers in the UK. It doesn't say anything more, it doesn't say where they caught it, comorbidities, were they working, etc.

The death rate from Covid-19 in teachers is no higher than the UK population as a whole.

It's misleading to link that article (that doesn't work) while suggesting it was a mistake for UK schools to remain open for essential workers when there is no evidence of this.

ldy4mxonucwsq6

jrosen wrote: »

If schools are only able to come back on reduced level then I think there needs to be priority given to those students who need it the most, to the classes (years) that need it the most and to kids who's parents work.

The Children's Ombudsman has already said that some children going back to school and others not would be discrimination and that children must be treated equally.

Whatever solution is put forward it will need to make sure that every child has the same learning opportunity as everyone else.

Sammy2012

Boggles wrote: »

If the partner wasn't tested and didn't get sick how do you know they had the virus?

Because they were the 1st person in contact with a confimed case. It was right at the time that they changed the testing criteria and they had no symptoms so they were not tested.

ldy4mxonucwsq6

Doctors in Italy reckon the virus is losing its strength and is nothing compared to what they were seeing previously, it's much weaker now.

It would be nice to see some scientific evidence to back up these claims but wouldn't it be great if this was true?

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-italy-virus/new-coronavirus-losing-potency-top-italian-doctor-says-idUSKBN2370OQ

Sammy2012

Zahir Bitter Cellist wrote: »

Doctors in Italy reckon the virus is losing its strength and is nothing compared to what they were seeing previously, it's much weaker now.

It would be nice to see some scientific evidence to back up these claims but wouldn't it be great if this was true?

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-italy-virus/new-coronavirus-losing-potency-top-italian-doctor-says-idUSKBN2370OQ

It would and hopefully by waiting it out until September or end of August we will be able to open schools are normal!