‘Infection control measures too vague’

WITH schools in some councils now at zero Covid alert and others on high what does this mean in practice and who decides?

All schools in Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan joined Swansea and Neath Port Talbot on the high Covid alert list this week, because of rising Covid cases among older people and pressure on TTP.

Meanwhile schools in Torfaen local education authority area are at alert level zero while schools in Pembrokeshire and Ceredigion are among those deemed at moderate.

Decisions are made on what the virus is doing locally and pressure on the NHS as well as what cases might be coming in to schools.

This term the Welsh Government introduced the new Covid “framework” for schools as they try to return education to more normality.

The framework has four Covid alert level categories for school leaders to follow, depending on local circumstances: low, moderate, high and very high.

Instead of blanket all-Wales guidelines councils and local health authorities now decide what category their schools should be in following risk assessments and checking the local situation.

The risk category can go up or down, depending on what the virus is doing and pressures on the NHS and TTP locally.

Moving schools in Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan up from the medium to high Covid alert level this week a spokesperson for the Cardiff and Vale Incident Management Team, led by Cardiff and Vale University Health Board and the two councils, indicated it wasd because of outside factors.

He said: “Based on the criteria in the Welsh Government infection control framework, the Cardiff and Vale region is now in the ‘high risk’ category, due to increasing cases in older people, increasing hospital admissions, and pressure on the Test, Trace and Protect service locally.”

Teaching unions and school leaders have criticised the new infection control measures as too vague to keep children safe and learning.

Some heads want a return to contact bubbles for contact tracing saying more of their children are now out of school than at other times in the pandemic. Up to 12,000 pupils a day in Wales are absent from school due to a Covid-related reason, according to the latest data. The guidance says it uses the terms “must” when it is a legal requirement and ‘should’ when it is good practice.

Schools have to carry out regular Covid risk assessments.