Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 14 July 2021
434. Deputy Robert Troy asked the Minister for Health if it can be made mandatory for siblings of close contacts to remain home from school until test results are known to prevent further spread of Covid-19 in schools. [31568/21]
View answerThe HSE has worked to ensure that the measures in place in schools are robust and prioritise the safety of staff and children. Dedicated multidisciplinary school teams led by public health professionals, working with teams from the Department of Education and school inspectors have been established to support school principals to identify issues as they emerge and work in a collaborative manner.
There is ongoing consideration given by the Government to policy in relation to the management of Covid-19 in school settings.
The Health Protection Surveillance Centre has published Guidance for Educational Settings relating to the management of Covid-19 in school settings. This guidance, which includes protocols relating to the management of close contacts, is available at: www.hpsc.ie/a-z/respiratory/coronavirus/novelcoronavirus/guidance/educationguidance/
The Deputy may wish to note that schools must have a Covid-19 Response Plan and a Covid policy in place. Up-to-date Government advice and resources for schools, parents and students in the context of COVID-19, including advice on Covid-19 planning is published at www.gov.ie/backtoschool.
Where a school is informed of a pupil or staff member who has tested positive for Covid-19, if the case was in the school during the infectious period, the HSE will contact school management in order to undertake a Public Health Risk Assessment (PHRA). Core to the PHRA will be assessing the likelihood of onward transmission from the case identified, and this will inform their further actions.
The Public Health advice remains that a confirmed case, anyone awaiting the result of a test and close contacts of confirmed cases, should restrict their movements and follow the advice provided by the HSE which is available at www.hse.ie. If a child is sent for a test as they are a suspected case, the other members of the household should restrict movements until the result is known. However, if a child who has been identified as a close contact is feeling well, with no symptoms of Covid-19, other members of the household do not need to restrict their movements. This means that adults living in the house can continue to attend work and other children in the house can continue to attend school, preschool or childcare.
The risk assessment applied in school settings may be dynamic and change as new information becomes available, and the testing strategy may evolve as information unfolds.
On an ongoing basis, NPHET considers and reviews, based on public health risk assessments, how best to target testing to detect, and mitigate the impact of, the virus across the population. This includes keeping Ireland’s national testing and tracing policy under continuing review.
