Dedicated HSE school teams for testing and tracing
- Published: 22 October 2020
As you know, IPPN has called for a dedicated HSE public health schools advisory service, staffed at least 12 hours a day, seven days a week, with sufficient capacity to deal with all school queries.
On Tuesday, IPPN attended the NPHET briefing along with the other education stakeholders. NPHET officials acknowledged the work of school leaders and the significant achievement in minimising the transmission rates in schools (see image per Irish Times 20 October, source HSE and Health Protection Surveillance Centre). They also acknowledged the difficulties relating to testing and tracing and committed to rectifying these issues.
Minister for Education Norma Foley has since announced that a dedicated service will be in place after the midterm break. Yesterday, the minister commented ‘In terms of testing and tracing in schools, public health resources will be strengthened and broadened, and we are putting school teams in place in each of the HSE areas which will support the work of the public health teams. ‘After the midterm break, I think it will give a very strong and strengthened approach to public health resources that are being deployed in schools.
Yesterday, the DES sent the following communication to schools:
‘The Department of Education has put the following temporary arrangement in place for school principals:
If a member of staff who has tested positive for COVID-19 gets a text message from the HSE to contact their own close contacts, we request the school principal to please ring the Department of Education at the following number 057 9324461 or email covid19_alert@education.gov.ie (if out of hours) with a mobile number for the school principal and the name and address of the school.
The Department will arrange for a follow-up call from Public Health to the school principal to identify if any action is required by the school, including identifying any close contacts for exclusion from the school.’
Until the HSE response time is adequate, IPPN will continue to provide its temporary out-of-hours service through covid@ippn.ie to support schools who experience difficulty getting in touch with the HSE.
