Latest: NPHET official plays down hopes of schools opening early
A leading health official is playing down hopes of schools reopening before September.
It is after an expert from the World Health Organisation said the Government should consider reopening them, as our cases of Covid-19 are declining.
There are now over 24,200 confirmed cases and 1,561 people have died.
Cillian de Gascun from the National Public Health Emergency Team said reopening schools would be risky.
"We've just released the first level of restrictions and we want to see how that has an impact," he said.
"We have done very well, the numbers are low, they're going in the right direction, but we believe, and we'll have more evidence for this in June, but we believe that the majority of the population still remain susceptible."
Now is time to consider reopening schools, says WHO doctor
The WHO’s special envoy on Covid-19, Dr David Nabarro has said it is now time to think about reopening schools.
While he remains hopeful that a vaccine can be found, in the meantime getting used to living with the virus is going to be the new normal, he told Newstalk Breakfast.
"Keeping children home from school for too long can have long-term effects on their development," warned Dr Nabarro.
“You have to balance the risk. Children staying at home, missing school – that is going to have a long-term impact on their future ability to earn and to be strong in society. At the same time, we do believe that children, although they can get the virus, are not anything like as important at spreading the virus as some other members of the population – so we have got to give it a try.”
However, Dr Nabarro added the caveat that before schools reopen teachers must be confident that they can manage the return to school and that children understand social distancing.
"Schools had reopened in other countries while managing to keep students and staff safe," he said.
“So, I am thinking the time has come, especially as you have got the numbers of cases being suppressed and you have got the defences building up, the time has come to gradually start reopening schools.”
"Given Ireland’s progress on suppressing the virus to date," Dr Nabarro said it was likely there were going to be people in government who will start thinking “very, very seriously” that schools could be reopened soon. But he added that he had to be careful not to “overstep” his remit as a WHO representative.
Any move to bring some classes back would have to be done very carefully “because so much depends on whether the teachers are comfortable and whether the parents are happy to send their kids back to school.”
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