NPHET should consider advice on closing schools early for Christmas, according to an immunologist.
However, the Department of Education has said there are no plans to change the Christmas holidays for schools.
Health officials meet on Thursday to discuss the situation with COVID-19 and the possibility of fresh restrictions in the run-up to Christmas.
They’re expected to look at measures such as a potential earlier closing time for hospitality and further advice around reducing household visits.
The latest HPSC report shows the highest incidence of COVID-19 is among primary school children
Christine Loscher, a professor of immunology at DCU, believes shutting schools on Friday instead of next Wednesday would provide a 'circuit breaker' among children.
She says she knows it wouldn't be a popular decision, but believes it would be worth it.
She said: “The sensible thing to do would be to take an entire cohort of unvaccinated children who are mixing all the time and are highly exposed at the moment in the school environment… and take them out a little earlier.
“From this Friday, they would be losing 2.5 days next week. It would help us get on the front foot, and minimise mixing of large cohorts of unvaccinated children before Christmas.”
It comes as NPHET is set to meet on Thursday, amid growing numbers of Omicron cases in Ireland.
On The Pat Kenny Show, Newstalk’s political correspondent Sean Defoe said the expectation around Government Buildings today is that more restrictions will be recommended by NPHET this week.
He said: “When we say more restrictions, obviously a lot of minds jump straight to lockdown - I don’t think that’s where we headed.
“But there’s an expectation they’re going to ask people to tighten the belt again, right before Christmas.
“They’re probably going to end up looking at things like the opening hours on hospitality, which weren’t changed last time… and tweaks to how many people you can have in your house.
“There is a little bit of alarm at NPHET level about the rise of the Omicron variant.”
He said there’s still lots of uncertainty around Omicron, but Government is keen to avoid a repeat of what happened last Christmas.
Meanwhile, the Government says it’s now ‘all hands on deck’ as they work to speed up the booster campaign amid Omicron concerns.
More details of the latest booster plan are expected later this week, after the Government yesterday confirmed people are now eligible for a booster three months after their second dose.
As of now, people aged 50 and older can get a booster vaccine.
