School principals are being left on their own to make public health decisions, according to the Irish National Teacher’s Organisation.

The teacher’s union is calling for contact tracing of children to return in primary schools due to the recent rise in cases.

On Newstalk Breakfast this morning, INTO President Joe McKeown said things can’t continue the way they are.

“Last week 2,393 primary school age children tested positive for COVID-19 and principals are saying to us - and we know it is happening - that they are being left waiting day after day,” he said.

“They might hear from a parent on a Saturday that a child has tested positive for COVID, they don’t hear anything from the HSE until maybe Tuesday or Wednesday, if at all, and day after day the numbers rise and principals are left on their own trying to make decisions without proper risk assessments being supplied to them.”

Contact tracing of school children was suspended in late September because thousands of pupils who had been designated close contacts were absent from school even though they did not have any symptoms.

The changes also meant that children under 12 who were designated close contacts no longer needed to restrict their movements.

Antigen testing

Yesterday, the Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said antigen testing could be considered for primary school children.

Mr McKeown said that would be a “very, very welcome development” – but insisted it would only work if contact tracing was reinstated.

“What we want to do first of all is to identify the close contacts and then, as you said earlier on, it is possible that antigen testing may well have a role in making sure that children do attend school,” he said.

“We are also in a situation where, right now, we know that over 2,000 were out of school with COVID which I think is worse than children being out of school without COVID, but we have no idea how many parents kept their children out of the school this week because they heard there might have been a case in a class or a school.”

Contact tracing

He said the previous contact tracing system was effective.

“Before they were removed in October, the public health person would be contacted by the principal and they would ask a series of questions relating to the size of the room, whether children were facing each other, whether they were beside each other, who they had contact with going in and out of various classes and how ventilated the room was,” he said.

“There are a whole series of public health questions that need to be asked and a principal on his or her own cannot decide who the close contacts are – but they have been left in a situation where people expect them to and that needs to change.”

Under the current rules, all children under the age of 12 that display COVID symptoms should ‘rapidly self-isolate, not attend childcare or school or socialise and follow all medical and public health guidance.’

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