Schools and Covid 19 (part 5) **Mod warnings in OP**

C02 monitors removed from a secondary school in the locality as the students were constantly blowing into them, between classes, so the monitor would go red and they'd have to leave class 😊😊

^^ That's what I'm thinking. You can only laugh.

After all the consternation about them, of course the kids were going to mess with them.

Yeah I just looked it up as I’m in the same situation. One with a temp and upset tummy for a day and it passed, but had her tested and I’m at home with three perfectly well children as the school goers can’t go in until the result. I antigen tested her and it was negative but it was the temperature that gave me the heebeejeebies, I know a few kids who got it recently and only had a temp. I am a SAHM but I have great sympathy for working parents, it must be a nightmare right now because kids are getting everything going

we suspended a child in our school for breathing on them. rightly so.

No they don't. They would only have had to restrict movements if the close contact developed symptoms.

My daughter was a close contact in September and had to restrict movements but the information from the school and HSE did not say that people who lived in the house had to restrict movements.

I kept her older sibling out of secondary school until we got the test result but I wasn't obliged to.

The HSE website has the following information :If you live with someone who is restricting their movements, you do not need to restrict your movements as long as they do not have any symptoms of COVID-19.

and the information from the HSE and department of education has the following information:

Q: Can family members of a pupil/student/staff member (who has been identified as a close contact) attend school?

A: Yes, as long as the family members have not also been designated close contacts by HSE Public Health. Only the pupil/student/staff member who is a close contact needs to restrict her/his movements, even though she/he has no symptoms. However, no other family member is required to do so and can still attend school – unless also identified as a close contact by HSE Public Health. If however, the pupil/student/staff member who is a close contact develops symptoms of Covid-19, then they are a suspected case of Covid-19 and should now self-isolate and contact their GP, explaining that they have been identified as a close contact of a confirmed case of Covid-19 and that they now have symptoms too. 

Could the parent be isolating in their room?

Child isn’t vaccinated …. But you know I think the waters are so muddied by confusing govt messages regarding primary aged children that the parents may not realise they are doing wrong.

ive heard people say several times that the rules don’t apply to primary kids. people are genuinely confused.

I’m so confused and there’s a long winter there yet 😳😳

They only go back 24 hours before the test if the person hasn't had any symptoms. It's 48 hours before symptoms started though if the person had symptoms.

In my daughters case the school told us that she had been a close contact and we arranged a test for her then, by the time the contact tracers phoned me it was day 8 since she had been a close contact....so someone could be classed as a close contact but then not get tested until days later....and their close contacts are counted from when they got the test, not when they were told they were a CC, so the parent may well have isolated in the 24 hours before the test.

Personally I wouldn't have sent my child to school either, but the parent may not be doing anything wrong 'technically'.

Jesus reading about this type of thing is awful. Hope all involvd are ok and that it isn't a situation that is replicated elsewhere in the country. Really feel for the principal, awful situation.

but they mightn't be all ok and there are such simple mitigation factors the Department could be employing to help keep them safe. It baffles me that they won't outfit every classroom in the country with HEPA filters. Cost is miniscule compared to testing etc.

Not a mention of anyone being sick, i think some people can't see the woods for the trees if this is regarded as awful, it's an overreaction and won't age well.

My child caught a respritory infection in school last year. It wasnt covid. She was hospitalised for almost a week. Dont see the department employing factors to keep other illnesses away. Ever. My child wasnt ok, hooked up to machines, ECG, chest xray, nebulisers and oxygen. Id put it out there that none of the kids from this school end up as bad as my child who had a chest infection and not covid. Ireland is facing into a PTSD pandemic

But the point is the Department should be putting in HEPA filtration regardless of Covid, it mitigates hugely against all respiratory illnesses, hugely reduces absenteeism, aids concentration etc. It could have helped your child last year.

It's a just a no brainer, really, but would have the added benefit of reducing covid transmission. I mean, why not?

I do think it's awful that although the school followed the guidelines provided that Covid still spread and I also think it is awful that they had to take the difficult decision to close. That's hardly a controversial opinion to hold.

Do you have some in stock?

I meant the full units. The Department of Health in Victoria has negotiated with Samsung to supply 51,000 air purifiers to be rolled out to their schools over the next four months. Samsung are one amongst many who would happily enter negotiations with the Irish government. It's entirely doable.

I just saw on the news that the CBS primary school in Wexford is reopening to students tomorrow following instruction from the Department of Education to do so. Meanwhile a school in Wicklow has reverted to online teaching but I think that was on advice from public health rather than a local decision.

I assume you have children in the school? You obviously know more than the rest of us if so. What do you make of the situation? From the outside I would've thought letting them stay online for three more days would've been a sensible move considering the number of cases they had.

Sorry, didn't mean to interrogate you! Just curious to hear your perspective.