Schools to close again.. Covid

Sorry, this has cropped up a few times about the Unions.

Have you a source for this - that the unions are against opening up. I just have seen it mentioned a few times but have not seen comments from the Unions.

The schools opening have never and will not be decided by logic, that’s where people are misinterpreting what is going to happen. If we shut the schools with no criteria for reopening the government cannot reopen without permission from the unions. The unions will be cautious and also will have no criteria for reopening. That is why reopening is difficult every single time. Just opening at the usual time after Christmas is much much easier.

"For their safety"? What's going to happen them if they get it? A bit of a head cold? This thing doesn't affect kids in the same way as adults.

Any government worth its salt will avoid specific criteria. Look at the famous "road map" for opening hospitality which meant that the government opened nightclubs as cases were beginning to get out of hand. If there was no "road map", no specific date given they could have fudged this.

I won't discuss what the Unions "will or won't" have as I can't predict the future. But if schools were to not reopen, what criteria would YOU suggest for reopening. Just curious as to how this would work in practice.

But a "peak" is a relative term. It tells nothing the trajectory or pace of change. You could still have very high figures for weeks. That's not saying we will - I don't know, but I don't think a notional "peak" is a reliable landmark for an immediate decision a week after schools are due to go back. We have had illusory peaks in the past. Closing for a week won't happen. It'll be longer or not at all.

Last January, with no vaccinations, we went from over 8000 cases on the 7th of January to less than 1300 by the end of January.....with very little of the population vaccinated. That's a 500% decrease, we could have opened then but we were playing for time to vaccinate the elderly and compromised, this isn't the case now. Reopening could simply be contingent on contact tracing and PCR testing being possible again.

The dutch have already extended the holidays. Modelling would give the impression that giving 2/3 weeks of restrictions should kill the virus within the community. A huge amount depends on whether that's the aim or not. It's possible, if ICUs remain stable, that playing for endemic status is on the cards. But none of this will be fully clear until next week. New varients are a killer but the levels by mid January, with a less transmissibke varient wouldn't fill me with confidence.

I hate online teaching to be clear, but confusing my desire to have schools open with epidemiological patterns won't keep hospitals from being overrun. Even though it won't give much time to prep I'd rather they wait and see but the patterns do look somewhat consistent. How many schools will not have enough staff come the 5th?

As opposed to your ideas that schools should be closed and reopened based on some politicians ‘feelings’.

This x1000 , it's not so much about COVID affecting general population or majority of kids being not as affected or "shur we're nearly all vaccinated now", it's all about ensuring continuity in hospitals.

When they get overrun it'll be cancelled operations, cancer treatments postponed and decisions about who lives and dies in ICU .

Consider the possibility of health system is crashing and not only that but yet another variant Comes through !!

You're into stockpiling and food shortages then.

Not sure I mentioned the word "feelings" did I?

It would be criminal not to re open school as normal in January. Teachers are vaccinated, many pupils are vaccinated. There is extremely small chance of anyone in school or working in school from getting seriously Ill from COVID. Closing schools because of community transmission would be a travesty in my opinion. Pupils have been through enough.

I teach in a secondary school and I'm not concerned with COVID at this stage there are plenty of more harmful health risks that concern me. I will follow all regulations to help keep numbers down but further school closures will start to have long term damage.

Sounds like you teach in a highly dangerous school if transmission of Covid is the least of your health worries. Fair play!

I'm fully vaccinated including booster so I'm probably at a statistically higher risk of death from driving to school than from covid.

So yes on a personal level COVID does not cause massive concern. Some concern of course but important to keep all risks in perspective.

I follow all guidelines, limited all social contacts over Christmas because I understand the pressure our health system can face, however in terms of my own personal health COVID at this stage is not a significant stressor.

Another record, 23,281 new Covid cases, being reported for today, 1 January 2022, over on The Irish Times website in the past hour:

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/department-of-health-provisionally-reports-record-23-281-new-cases-of-covid-19-1.4767321

If numbers keep rising, I'm not quite sure how they can open up schools in a mere 5 days time, especially when on 22 December, we had a seemingly overlooked report saying that "Schools still main setting for Covid outbreaks" (https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/schools-still-main-setting-for-covid-outbreaks-but-figures-fall-considerably-1.4762431)

The key numbers (hospitalisations and ICU count) both dropped since yesterday though. I think it's a very important metric which might even be more important than case numbers. So when you talk about numbers, it's very important to consider both numbers of severe disease (which are falling) vs the number of sniffles at home due to a solid vaccination rate.

What leave am I entitled to if I have covid? Do they require a positive PCR cert? I have a few positive antigens today but getting a PCR result before Thursday is unlikely.

Also, my kids are required to do 14 days (10 if negative PCR on day 10 - again, will be difficult to get these tests), I’m out after 10, is there leave available for minding my kids for the remaining 4 days?

What is the best course of action here?

All help appreciated.

With the hospital figures falling nicely and Omicron spreading but having no real medical impact on people id say the schools will open as planned

Any delay makes very little sense.