Isolation is a blunt, ineffective tool
Hitherto, pupils who may have come into contact with a Covid case at school are sent home to isolate for 10 days, a policy that disrupts education and socialisation and is ruinous for mental health. A new study of more than 200 schools by Oxford University suggests it is also quite unnecessary. Between April and June, half of those schools continued with official rules while the rest were permitted to test pupils daily instead of asking them to isolate. The research found that 98 per cent of children who were sent home after a contact tested positive never went on to develop Covid, which indicates that the policy ruins lives almost for nothing. Meanwhile, schools that tested pupils instead saw four per cent fewer cases – perhaps because infected youngsters were more open about their contacts when the consequences were less severe.
It is enormously frustrating that this research was only released a day before the end of term and after the Government had already vowed to end the isolation rules for children. Precious weeks have already been lost and wasted thanks to this shambles. According to researchers, when the schools taking part in the testing arm of the study had to return to normal, they were “bereft” as pupils were once again handed isolation notices.
An isolation policy is also being followed among adults, of course, leading to a so-called “pingdemic” as the NHS app advises people to isolate even if the contagious person they have been in “contact” with is a neighbour sitting on the other side of a wall. How long should we expect to wait before research confirms the obvious flaws in this, too, and it is finally dropped – having done maximum damage to the economy? Excusing specific jobs from immediate isolation is welcome but nowhere near enough, for the economy is integrated and bottlenecks in one area will create chaos in another. It is also beside the point.
A country in which the vulnerable are doublevaccinated and the rest of the adult population is fast catching up should not still be using isolation as a blunt lockdown tool at all. At what point will it be acknowledged that Covid remains a risk, absolutely, but one that must be weighed against other factors imperilled by social restrictions, such as jobs and education? The Government – overpowerful and overcautious – is still acting as if this were March 2020, and change is much too slow.