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Leon Farrell

Health officials expect self-isolation criteria for children could be changed 'in the near term'

Dr Tony Holohan said that while there has been an increase in testing in younger age groups, positivity has dropped.

THE CHIEF MEDICAL Officer has said health officials expect to soon be in a position to change self-isolation criteria for schoolchildren who are close contacts of confirmed Covid cases.

Around 12,000 children across the country are currently self-isolating and there have been calls for rules to be relaxed to prevent students who are close contacts from having to miss school.

Dr Tony Holohan, appearing before the Oireachtas Health Committee this morning, said his “hope and expectation” is that within a short period of time the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) will be in a position to issue new advice in this area.

He said this will be done once officials have had enough time to monitor the impact of the resumption of the school year on potential transmission.

“We’ve seen a significant increase in testing, that level of increase in testing has outstripped the increase in incidence – so in other words the positivity has dropped,” he told the committee.

“What we’ve seen in terms of that increase in incidence, particularly the five to 12-year-olds, is explained by the very huge volume of additional testing has been done in that age group.

It’s not a true underlying change the incidence of the disease in those age groups, it’s a very important observation. We want to maintain that observation for sufficient time – which we think is not much more – to allow us to say we’re in a position to change to a different form of management of disease, not just in respect of schoolchildren, but in respect of testing and contact tracing for the whole of society.

Dr Holohan said NPHET wants to change those arrangements but primary-aged children have only been back in school for around two weeks and officials want to ensure they have allowed sufficient observation time before making a decision.

“We’re not that far away from being able to have that certainty, if it’s there, and we remain hopeful that we’d be in a position to change that in the near term, not just for school children, but in terms of testing, contact tracing and the wider public health management for society as a whole.”

In his opening statement, the CMO said the reintroduction of Covid-19 measures “cannot be fully ruled out” in the future due to the uncertain nature of the virus.

However he later clarified that he does not believe significant restrictions will have to be re-imposed on the Irish population.

“In broad terms we’re optimistic about the trajectory of the disease at this point in time, and the likelihood that over the course of the coming weeks, the important criteria that we set out in our last advice to government that need to be satisfied before we think we’re able to move on from the range of measures that are still in place being eased, we think we’re a very short number of weeks away from that,” he said.

He said officials have not seen anything emerging globally to concern them in relation to new variants. Dr Holohan explained that the highly-transmissible Delta variant appears to have suppressed the spread of many of the other variants that vaccines were not as effective against.

He said it is still his view that the country is on track to reach the criteria needed to lift the majority of restrictions on 22 October.

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16 Comments
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    Mute Aidan Boran
    Favourite Aidan Boran
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    Feb 7th 2018, 11:13 PM

    best treatment is whiskey and sand.

    Massage one or two shots of whiskey, then add handful of sand to the scalp….

    nits get drunk and kill each other throwing stones…

    472
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    Mute The Girl
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    Feb 7th 2018, 11:16 PM

    @Aidan Boran: Really? Must try that…but then why waste whisky?

    21
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    Mute Patabake Kennedy
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    Feb 8th 2018, 12:51 AM

    @Aidan Boran: May only apply to Irish Lice.

    67
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    Mute Margaret O Neill
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    Feb 8th 2018, 3:31 PM

    @Aidan Boran: best laugh I’ve had in weeks. Thanks Aidan

    8
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    Mute Boutros Boutros-Ghali
    Favourite Boutros Boutros-Ghali
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    Feb 7th 2018, 11:07 PM

    I might be nitpicking, but I don’t think you’re meant to smoke while you treat your children’s scalps. Lousy carry on.

    315
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    Mute Fiona Fitzgerald
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    Feb 8th 2018, 2:49 AM

    All done, just need a candle to read the small print…

    23
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    Mute Peter Cavey
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    Feb 7th 2018, 11:37 PM

    30 years ago this was an issue too.. although, 30 yesterday ago, head lice cream had plutonium in it.

    17
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    Mute Boutros Boutros-Ghali
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    Feb 7th 2018, 11:42 PM

    @Peter Cavey: Lice cream and jelly

    23
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    Mute Andy K
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    Feb 8th 2018, 6:53 AM

    @Peter Cavey: It just got rid of all the hair then? I guess that’s one way to be live free.

    5
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    Mute Dean Anderson
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    Feb 8th 2018, 6:18 AM

    “Is there anything you can prescribe doctor?” –Homer Simpson
    “Fire &lots of it.” – Dr Hibbert
    “Oh, that’s your cure for everything ” – Marge Simpson

    14
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    Mute
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    Feb 7th 2018, 11:40 PM

    What are vegans thoughts on killing these little creatures…

    70
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    Mute Boutros Boutros-Ghali
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    Feb 7th 2018, 11:41 PM

    @: I think they go for clean hair, so they’re not typically a worry for vegans.

    104
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    Mute Jackie Carvill Caruana
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    Feb 8th 2018, 7:46 AM

    @Boutros Boutros-Ghali: I’ve always heard that head lice love clean hair. Do vegans have clean hair in general? The ones I know don’t!

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    Mute Desmodromic
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    Feb 8th 2018, 2:11 PM

    We see what you did there – sneaky!

    1
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    Mute Sean
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    Feb 8th 2018, 8:33 AM

    I saw a girls hair go on fire in a church once. It was heavily lacquered and the fire took hold instantly. An unlikely but quick witted hero took off his jacket and threw it over her head smothering out the flames. But for him she would have been in serious trouble because the rest of us were just standing there mouths agape.

    14
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    Mute JJ
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    Feb 8th 2018, 11:10 AM

    I was at a bonfire once. Was deadly.

    6
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    Mute Tomas
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    Feb 7th 2018, 11:07 PM

    Fecking fire flea’s ffs

    14
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    Mute Marie Okeeffe
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    Feb 8th 2018, 4:59 PM

    Tea tree oil the best treatment for them and its natural

    6
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    Mute Michael Wynne
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    Feb 7th 2018, 11:18 PM

    Well I think that’ll kill the little f***ers for sure

    28
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