Dear Parent / Guardian,

We have received a number of queries from parents inquiring what would happen if there was a suspected / confirmed case of Covid-19 in the school. We received this information from the Department of Education & Skills last Thursday in relation to a suspected or confirmed case of Covid-19. The text below is taken from their document.

Kind regards,

Gerry Berry                                                                             Alma Quinn

Chairperson of BoM                                                               Principal

• The response to confirmed cases or outbreaks of Covid-19 in the community or in a school is the responsibility of and will be led and managed by Public Health HSE. All decisions as to appropriate actions following a confirmed case or outbreak will be made by their teams in the context of a full Public Health Risk Assessment procedure.  Any actions to be taken by the school will be communicated directly by Public Health HSE.  School management will be informed as and when such actions such as exclusion of children or staff; partial or full closure, are deemed necessary on public health grounds.  If the school is not so informed, it has not been deemed necessary by Public Health.
• In particular, schools are asked to note that they should not inform other parents or staff members that a pupil or staff member has gone home due to their symptoms. Other pupils or staff do not need to be removed from class, including siblings or other household members.
• When the GP of the child or staff member has assessed the symptoms to be consistent with Covid-19 infection, e.g. fever OR a new cough, shortness of breath, deterioration of existing respiratory condition OR symptoms of aguesia or dysgeusia (essentially loss of or changes to the sense of taste) and the person is referred for a test, at this point the person becomes a suspected Covid 19 case and household members including siblings should be withdrawn from school by their parent or guardian.

• Where no evidence of Covid-19 is detected by the test, the child or staff member should remain at home only until he or she is clinically well enough to return to school (unless specifically requested by HSE to do otherwise). In particular, all diarrhoea symptoms need to have been resolved for 48 hours prior to return to school.  Household members can return to school immediately following the receipt by the parent or guardian or staff member of a “not detected” result.

• When a case has been confirmed, the Medical Officer of Health and teams will liaise directly with the school and inform them of the confirmed case as necessary and will undertake a Public Health Risk Assessment to inform any further actions and recommendations.

• There is no blanket policy to test entire classes or years. The testing strategy will be aligned to the Public Health Risk Assessment which may recommend widespread swabbing within a class or school under HSE mass testing procedures.