While I understand why they are doing this I have to agree with iamwhoiam and appledrop .
People should be kept informed so they can evaluate their own particular risks in each family .
I have friends and family who regularly visit with their school age children . I also have very immunocompromised son who will not be getting an extra vaccine shot for another month at least.
I gave advised him that he is going to have to cocoon until he gets this extra dose and Iwill be asking people to stay away with their children until that is done .
There are grandparents who mind their grandchildren or others who don't have that choice .
I think we have come to the end of that narrative really. We can see it too in the signals from health bodies on how they are now looking at COVID. The whole contract tracing was very precautionary but NPHET and the HSE point out the low risk to the very young, hence the change. I also think we need to get past the vulnerable older person as they will shortly be getting another shot. If they are at risk from this they are at risk from other things and permanently hiding away from it into perpetuity is not living.
Iamwhoiam, 100% agree, inform parents with the facts + then they can make best choice for their family.
This decision was not made though based on evidence of what was actually in the best interest in terms of public health, they were basicially just overwhelmed with all cases in schools and system fell apart.
A shambles.
People should be entitled to make up their own mind for the safety of their family and circumstances taken into consideration .
For example if a parent was not informed that their child was a close contact and took that child to visit a vulnerable grand parent ?
Some parents will choose to send the child to school some will not due to their own circumstances . Surely that is up to a parent ?
Parents are informed if another child has head lice , surely they should be informed if another child has Covid
Yep, it's one thing to say close contacts in schools no longer have to stay at home if no symptoms but to actually not bother to follow up with contract tracing is disgraceful. Fair enough people can decide themselves on risk if adults all vaccinated + no High risk but none of us know a family's circumstances.
I mean schools + HSE send home letters informing parents of cases of head lice or mealses or mumps outbreak etc but all of a sudden Covid doesn't matter as a public health risk anymore.
My heart goes out to any parent with a vulnerable child in school with Cystic Fibrosis, recovering from cancer etc, they must be at their wits end.
It's the excessive caution that is still keeping large numbers somewhat needlessly out for school for something likely to be very, very mild. Bear in mind that vaccinated adults do not have to isolate as close contacts and with nearly 91% fully vaccinated it has become a lot harder to encounter the unvaccinated and at risk.
I agree . I think people are entitled to know if they are a close contact . Every family is different and some have vulnerable siblings or grandparents etc
Yea hopefully won't come back positive but I just think it's so irresponsible to get rid of contract tracing.
One of kids in pod had a new baby sibling over the weekend. In my mind I'd be a highly irresponsible parent if my child did test positive + I didn't inform them. At least they could then keep an extra eye on their child for symptoms.
Same here, not being keeping lists for outdoor soccer for 3 weeks now.
Do you mind me asking if you're sure about that?We have been told at GAA and swimming there is now no requirement to fill out the usual Covid forms we were doing all along weekly - is it just an assumption that the HSE will contact trace for activities?I assume they mightn't for outdoor ones.
The contact tracing will continue in the sports and other activities outside schools, so the changes are if a kid is positive in school it be caught at one of the sports and everyone will hear about it
Which is all you can do. Those class Whatsapp groups will come in handy now....
1st Covid test for our child, one month into school for a cough, no other symptoms.
Hopefully it comes back clear, but if not I'll be informing school and parents so they can keep an eye on their child despite government not caring about close contacts.
Health measures in schools will be a matter for the DoE. While the proposed guidelines on 22nd October say that masks aren't required, that doesn't mean the DoE will drop the requirement.
That said however, I'm expecting them to use the Halloween break as an opportunity to change the rules so that schools arrive back with new rules/guidelines in place.
With almost everyone over 12 vaccinated, it seems unlikely that the mask requirement in schools will be maintained.
There has been nothing about it at all. But I totally agree with you. Anyway they are sort of pointless when everyone else in the classroom isn't wearing one and I am fully vaccinated. It's not possible to teach younger children phonics and sounds without showing them your mouth. Would love if it was up to each teacher to decide for themselves.
My school said Schools will be keeping the covod response plan in place which includes masks, although my son has a speech delay and I feel he would benefit greatly feom seeing his teachers mouth as they talk.
Any word on muzzles being dropped for teachers on October 22nd? I’m assuming they won’t be But would love to know.
Fecking hate the mask, it’s impossible to do my job right. Just let us make the choice now, get in with it.
Sorry yes, meant anything possibly viral, so with an accompanying temp etc
Kids who just have a cold with no temp or cough are fine to go to school as per the hse advice.
But kids would have gone to school with a cold pre-Pandemic
Pretty sure it's always been the case to wait 48 hours after symptoms disappear for returning to school, even in the before times
Question !
If a fully vaccinated 12 year old gets a cold, stays out of school and gets a PCR Test with a negative result - at what point can s/he return to school ?
Is it straight away after the negative result ? Or is it 48 hours after the symptoms disappear ?
Ya that's the conclusion we've come to. Better than nothing, but just don't understand why the secrecy around positive cases. Think I'm going to give mam respite from Saturday afternoon through to Sunday night now instead, and take an antigen test Saturday morning.
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Can anybody tell me how to stop getting notifications from a particular thread?
Not ideal but maybe an idea for you would be to do antigen test once finished school on Friday and before you go to mind your gran .You will have some peace of mind then ?
I'll happily pay for my own testing given a choice. We regularly use antigen tests. Pretending the problem isn't there won't make it go away.
I think it's fair to say we are coming from completely different perspectives and won't agree. I see your perspective I just fundamentally disagree with it.
Massive difference between measles mumps etc and the virus's we're talking about. It doesn't do any harm but every test costs €100. That's near 2 million a day we're spending on testing. It's not sustainable and people need to move away from the fear of covid and start living life as you normally did before.
Why single out measles/mumps/chickenpox/slapped cheek etc? Covid is absolutely dangerous to the vulnerable and known to be in wide circulation at the moment. Why not let people know of cases and let them risk assess themselves according to their particular circumstances? What harm does that do?
I'm a teacher and yes I have vulnerable family members. But if a child in my class has a cough and I didn't go see them...I would probably never see them! The point I'm making is you don't have a clue what you encounter everyday and spread around. It's not unreasonable to want to do the same with covid if that's how you want to live but I believe now it's unreasonable to single out one virus to be tested when there's a load of other ones out there equally dangerous to vulnerable or elderly.
