TWO PRIMARY school classes in Dublin have been sent home just days after returning to school following children contracting coronavirus.
Yesterday, Tuesday 1 September, a primary school based in Dublin confirmed one of its classes had been sent home after one pupil tested positive Covid-19.
The school in question had reopened last Wednesday following a five-month break after the first cases of coronavirus were identified in Ireland in March.
The child did not contract the virus in school, the principal of the school told RTÉ's Today with Claire Byrne, but all pupils in the child's class have been sent home as a precaution.
Today a second primary school in the Dublin area has sent a classroom of children home after one student tested positive for the virus, Dublin Live has reported.
According to the outlet, the school emailed parents yesterday evening confirming a student had tested positive and a Public Health Risk Assessment had taken place which advised that the class should be sent home.
Two schools in Ireland's capital have sent classes home after children tested positive for coronavirusThe principal of the school told parents that all close contacts of the child in question had been identified, and if parents did not receive a letter from the HSE advising otherwise, their children should continue to attend school as normal.
Lesson plans for the children who have been sent home are being written up in order for them to temporarily continue their education from home, the classroom will be deep cleaned, and the principal has urged parents to remain calm, Dublin Live reports.
Tánaiste Leo Varadkar had previously said that outbreaks of the virus in schools are "inevitable" but schools are a lower risk environment than previously thought.
Speaking on RTÉ One's Open for Business series in August, Mr Varadkar said it was guaranteed that "in a few weeks' time, we're going to see clusters occur in schools" but this does not mean that the school's staff or pupils did something wrong.
"This is a highly infectious virus and everyone doing the right thing still means that some people may get the virus," he said.
"We've learned a lot about this virus that we didn’t know, for example, back in March, and we do know that schools, for example, are a lower risk environment than may have been thought at the time."
The Dáil has been recalled early from the summer recess, in part due to schools reopening, and is sitting today in order to discuss a myriad of issues surrounding the coronavirus pandemic.
