21 teachers caught up in Dundee Covid alert
THE number of coronavirus cases linked to a Dundee school yesterday soared to 27 – and pupils from two other primaries in the city have also tested positive.
The cases at Kingspark School, which was ordered to close last week, include 21 staff, two pupils and four community contacts.
Nicola Sturgeon confirmed pupils from two other Dundee primary schools have also tested positive following contact tracing – St Peter and Paul’s School and Happy Times outof-school club at Downfield Primary.
A nursery in Fife also had to close when a child tested positive yesterday. Kingspark was closed on Tuesday with all staff told to self-isolate for two weeks from the last day they were on site, while all pupils have been told to remain in quarantine for a fortnight from last Thursday.
Miss Sturgeon said: ‘Once again I want to stress the importance of these rules on self-isolation, and to thank everyone for sticking to them.
‘Self-isolation is a crucial way, perhaps the most important way of all, of keeping clusters under control and mitigating against wider transmission in the community.’
A total of 66 new positive coronavirus cases were confirmed yesterday, while the number of patients in hospital with symptoms of the virus increased by three to 248.
Miss Sturgeon said most of the cases associated with schools have been down to transmission in the community rather than within school buildings.
However, she added: ‘I have never said that there will not ever be transmission in schools and it may be that at Kingspark we see some of that and obviously health protection teams will be looking very carefully at that. It is not that there is no risk of transmission in schools but the risk is greater of community transmission getting in to schools.’
Dr Gregor Smith, interim chief medical officer, said: ‘The greatest risk in relation to schools is the way that the virus might be introduced from external sources.
‘What happens in schools will be very much representative of the disease prevalence in the surrounding communities.
‘As people come close together, we have already seen evidence from house parties and social gatherings where the virus has transmitted through those means and then from there has been introduced to school-aged children from that means, rather than as a result of contact in schools.’
NHS Fife yesterday confirmed that a child attending the nursery at Newburgh Primary School was now isolating at home with other household members. The nursery has been closed, however the rest of the primary school will remain open.
Lynn Burnett, nurse consultant in health protection, said: ‘We appreciate that members of the public may be concerned about any new community cases, however we want to reassure people that the risk of contracting coronavirus remains low.
‘NHS Fife has well-established procedures in place to trace those in close contact with the case and our public health contact tracing team is currently calling those who came into prolonged contact with the confirmed case to offer support and advice.’
‘Keeping clusters under control’