Three sizeable outbreaks in West Lothian schools in the last month

There were three significant Covid-19 outbreaks in West Lothian schools in April.

The Courier sent a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to Public Health Scotland (PHS) for information from March 28 to April 13.

The FOI revealed that there were 75 children who tested positive for Covid-19 in this time frame, registered at schools in West Lothian.

Three schools in West Lothian were identified as having at least 10 registered pupils that tested positive for Covid-19 between March 28 and April 13.

They were: St Margaret’s Academy in Livingston with 13 infections, St Andrew’s Primary School in Howden with 12 and St Ninian’s Primary School in Livingston had 11 children testing positive.

And 22 schools in West Lothian were identified as having at least one registered pupil that tested positive during this period.

The were:

Blackridge Primary School, Simpson Primary School, Broxburn Primary School, Springfield Primary School, Connolly School Campus, St John Ogilvie Primary School, Deans Primary School, St Joseph’s Primary School, Dedridge Primary School, St Kentigern’s Academy, East Calder Primary School, St Margaret’s Academy, Harrysmuir Primary School, St Mary’s Primary School, St Andrew’s Primary School in Howden, St Nicholas Primary School, Inveralmond Community High School, St Ninian’s Primary School, JamesYoung High School, St Paul’s Primary School, Our Lady’s Primary School and West Calder High School.

Public Health Scotland pointed out that the outbreaks may not have occurred within West Lothian schools, and also explained how they collated the data on over 28,000 children from the county.

A PHS spokesperson said:“This relates to positive tests among registered pupils, irrespective of whether pupils were in school at any point during their illness, and therefore does not necessarily reflect an outbreak within that school.

“The CHSP-School dataset identified 86 West Lothian schools, attended by 28,357 pupils.

“276 pupils were identified as being the wrong age for primary school, and one identified as being wrong age for secondary school.

“These children were excluded from the analysis, as they may not be attending the school they were attached to.

“This data quality issue will be solved once the CHSP-School dataset is fully updated at the end of the school year.

“This left 28,080 schoolchildren that could be linked with test data for analysis.”