School’s out till September
»»Dr Holohan warns against fast-track return to lessons »»He insists there is little evidence to say it’s risk-free
SCHOOL re-openings should not be fast-tracked Ireland’s chief doctor warned last night.
Dr Tony Holohan was speaking after Taoiseach Leo Varadkar raised hopes of an early return to class.
He said new studies showed the move would be among the safest activities to kickstart.
Dr Holohan – who revealed recommending face masks in schools has not been discussed – said he would not disagree with the Taoiseach but could not see classrooms returning before September. He added: “I am not anticipating any changes in relation to schools and the advice we will give in relation to that.
“The evidence is based on small numbers of studies with small numbers of children. The world is not ready to conclude that transmission involving children doesn’t happen.”
Yesterday brought 10 more tragic deaths from Covid-19 – the lowest daily toll since March.
The total in this first phase of Ireland’s war with the virus.now stands at 1,497 people who have died.
On Day 75 of the outbreak, which began on February 29, 159 new cases were confirmed, bringing the total number of infections to 23,401. The highest death toll was 58 lives lost on April 12. Figures reported so far show just one death on Tuesday this week.
But the National Public Health Emergency Team is satisfied with many of the key indicators of the disease.
There were 64 people with Covid-19 in intensive care beds yesterday and Dr Holohan confirmed delays in testing turnarounds would not hold back the decision to ease restrictions.
NPHET will meet today and is expected to give the green light to begin unwinding lockdown.
However, Dr Holohan warned it wasn’t the time to start throwing
“parties and barbecues”. He added: “We will keep monitoring that situation all the way up to Monday.
“If things keep going on the track that they are on we would be hopeful.
“If we find ourselves in a situation where we are recommending an easing of restrictions from the beginning of next week, it will lead to an increase in the circulation of people, not to a significant extent if people continue to follow the advice.
“If people go beyond where we are recommending and start to have the barbecues and the parties and visiting each other’s houses in the way we are not recommending, then that’s the scenario we would be concerned about.”
As restrictions ease, Dr Holohan added lessons will have to be learned about how to protect residential and nursing home residents where almost 1,000 people have died of Covid-19.
He said: “We are going to have to find a way to live with this virus for some considerable time. The way we are going to have to minimise the impact on nursing homes and vulnerable people in the community is going to stay with us.”
Figures also showed a sharp rise in recovery rates with 84% of those infected beating the bug – the international average is around 80%.
Out of 23,089 cases studied, 19,470 had recovered including 1,593 who had needed hospital treatment.
Further details emerged on the underlying medical conditions that make people more vulnerable to the virus.