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FROM TODAY, CHILDREN who are close contacts of a person with Covid-19 in school will no longer have to restrict their movements if they don’t have symptoms.
The new guidance was agreed after discussions with NPHET and detailed were released by the Department of Health last week.
Under the new rules:
Existing rules around testing asymptomatic children who are close contacts and contact tracing will still apply for special education facilities.
Any student showing symptoms of Covid-19 – whether they are a close contact or not – is still advised to stay home from school and contact their GP.
Common symptoms of Covid-19 include fever, cough, fatigue, shortness of breath or loss/change to sense of smell or taste.
The public health advice remains that any child showing Covid symptoms should self-isolate and not attend school or socialise until 48 hours after their symptoms end.
‘Low-risk environment’
Health officials have repeatedly stressed that schools are safe environments, with Health Minister Stephen Donnelly saying they “continue to be a low-risk environment”.
Professor Philip Nolan, chair of NPHET’s epidemiological modelling advisory group, said there is “no evidence that the reopening of schools has led to an increase in transmission or levels of infection amongst school-going children or more widely across the population”.
He said results from testing show there was a three- to four-fold increase in the number of children referred for testing recently, but that incidence rates have remained stable over the last 10 days.
Officials at the Department of Education had a meeting with unions on Thursday in relation to the relaxation of the close contact rules.
A department spokesperson said officials “worked through the implications for schools in managing” the changes.
“Dr Kevin Kelleher, public health HSE, was in attendance to answer any questions that they had regarding public health arrangements and the new policy,” the spokesperson said.
General Secretary of the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) John Boyle had said he was “absolutely flabbergasted” by the decision.
Speaking to Newstalk last week, Boyle said the government is removing a “safety net” from schools.
“Whatever supports were there for schools last year have been stripped out and this [ceasing automatic contact tracing] is a further measure that we felt should not even be entertained until after mid-term break,” Boyle said.
However, Labour education spokesperson Aodhán Ó Ríordáin said that the move was “really welcome” and made “weeks too late”.
He said principals have contacted him “totally exasperated at the lack of the support from the HSE”.
Extra resources were put into public health teams earlier this month after school principals said they were under “considerable pressure” waiting for advice on dealing with Covid-19 cases.
“Thousands of children have been losing out on school days unnecessarily for weeks,” Ó Ríordáin said in a statement.
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And the government is talking of heaping more taxes etc on people later in the year. They should cop on & realise you cant tax your way out of a recession. Consumers will spend less and less as the cuts go deeper.
Don’t worry people, your money and future are going to bailout out private businesses, that were mismanaged, often criminally so, and who in any normal country would have had their bondholders burnt. The irony of the a left wing party, the Shinners pointing out what is a correct thing for capitalism to do, and be backed in that by the world’s leading economists against the so called economic realists of FG and FF, whose actions are considered crazed by most of the world’s leading investors and economists. The thing is that those economists are looking at FG and FF from their own experiences, they are not aware that FG and FF will and have repeatedly driven this economy in to the mud to protect and enrich a very small no. of people that are their friends and donors. Half the population have had to lave since the foundation of the state, brought to edge of bankruptcy 4 times in 50 years, both parties are unique in the western world, having both quadrupled state debt.
Heard on the radio that we consumers are unwilling to part with our cash – cash? What cash???
and
“Michael Noonan recently urged the Irish public to get and spend” – spend what?!
It just shows how out of touch these politicians are,I barely have enough money to be able to cover my mortgage and buy groceries for the month .. ,,it really is getting to the stage where I would be better off claiming welfare..taxing the hell out of us isnt the way forward.
This grand for him is say get out and spend and on the other side Richard Bruton is planning on cutting pay to the low paid workers.
Again this government and previous one alike fail to understand that it is the low & middle income earners that spend their money in the local economy but for some reason they continue to impose higher taxes etc. onto them.
Speaking of consumer sentiment, I didn’t see The Journal cover the EU story yesterday from a Euro stat report showing that Irish people paid more for pretty much everything from alcohol, tobacco and groceries to hotels than most other EU countries. Might have something to do with consumer sentiment?
What’s new?
There is no direction out there . Until we see stability in EU we will be afraid to spend.
I spent €60 in B&Q yesterday so your welcome Mr Noonan…
I have a plan. The government should appoint one ridiculously upbeat, one nagging, and one burly Confidence Fairy! on every street.
The upbeat one will come to your door first. She will tell you how great you are, and how everything is going to turn out just fine, remind you we have close friends like Barack Obama and Queen Elizabeth rooting for us, and try to convince you to start living the high life again.
The nagging one will be next. She will tell you that you have seriously failed as a father by not going to the pub, not changing the car, not having a family holiday (in Mayo), and because you insist on your wife buying own-brand stuff in Tesco.
If these don’t get you spending again then the burly Confidence Fairy! will come to your door smelling of strong liquor. He will grab you by the scruff of the neck and drag you to the nearest ATM. He will kick you in the posterior repeatedly until you have withdrawn €1,000. He will then drag you to the pub and shout THE DRINKS ARE ON…you.
He will then drag you to every Celtic Fiasco business in your local area and kick you until you have spent all your hard earned money on vouchers for coffee shops, spas, hairdressers, dental hygienists, aromatherapy and reflexology, and on deposits for soffits, wall insulation and cobble-lock paving.
Sounds far-fetched?
Remember that pension thingy you were saving for old age?
The gov must think the people of ireland are like ATMs just put in there hands and take out what ever they want
You kind of need money to spend it in the first place, maybe that’s why people are not spending??? Just a thought!
YO NOONAYS ,SPEND SPEND SPEND EHY!!!!!!you must honestly think were gobshits DOES ANYBODY KNOW THE GREEK FOR OUR DAY IS COMMING
have your say