Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 5 November 2020
156. Deputy Cian O'Callaghan asked the Minister for Education if her attention has been drawn to an update to the Covid-19 tracker application in order that it can be paused; if she has concerns that this feature is being used for school staff during school hours; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [34389/20]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe Health Protection Surveillance Centre and the HSE have published guidance for managing potential cases of COVID-19 in educational settings, which includes the testing strategy within an educational facility ‘Schools Pathway for COVID-19, the Public Health approach’ https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/a0bff-reopening-our-primary-and-special-schools/
It is important to note that 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. The COVID Tracker App assists public health teams as part of their Public Health Risk Assessments. The COVID Tracker App is intended to augment manual contact tracing processes rather than replace them. The app has a number of advantages. People who have been on close contact with someone who has been diagnosed with Covid-19 are normally notified faster by the app, than is possible via the manual contact tracing process. The app can also alert people who are strangers to the Covid patient and who otherwise could not be traced via manual contact tracing processes.
In the version of the app released on 27th October 2020, a ‘PAUSE’ function was introduced for health care workers to allow them to temporarily disable proximity detection when wearing PPE. The same ‘PAUSE’ functionality is already deployed successfully in the Northern Ireland and Scottish Covid tracker apps. The information provided in the App when a close contact alert is received has been updated and includes guidance for people in schools and healthcare settings. It now also includes the date when the close contact happened.
