Covid-19 surge in schools causing concern nationwide

School principals are calling for a dedicated HSE phone helpline for reporting Covid-19 cases in classes as they are struggling to manage increased cases and close contacts.

There is growing concern among principals across the country about delays in public health teams and contact tracers responding to calls about infected schoolchildren to an existing special helpline.

The HSE has said that up to 12,000 children are staying home from school and restricting their movements after being identified as close contacts just days into the new academic year.

John Boyle, general secretary of the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation, said the HSE may need to apply more resources to the principals’ helpline to manage the surge in exposures.

“It was heavily resourced last year but we never had that level of cases in the community with schools open so there is a possibility that the resource is not sufficient,” said Mr Boyle.

The teachers’ union wants helpline staff to be redeployed to support schools in areas of the country dealing with higher levels of Covid-19 infection and for public health risk assessment and contact tracing teams to be strengthened to speed up response times in dealing with cases.

“If there is a time lag and there are people infectious in schools because advice has not been given to school principals or management as to what to do, that is going to create havoc,” he said.

Mr Boyle said the number of Covid-19 close contacts reported in schools was a cause of great concern and that the responsibility left on principals to deal with cases was “quite onerous.”

He also stated that the number of schools with one confirmed case already this year was half the number that had a confirmed case over the course of the full school year last year.

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