It is the schools discretion to inform
parents of a +ve & adds that they should take account factors such as "known vulnerability".
Unclear if a vulnerability is only for children in their care. Schools have limited understanding of medical issues & even less so for 3rd parties.
Plus, there is the issue of vaccination and immunity.
Just because someone has had 💉💉 it doesn't mean they are protected. In some cases Vulnerable people themselves might not even know that.
All of the above puts lives at significantly increased risk...
Cases in children are almost double what they were at the previous peak.
This is also disproportionately affecting the poorer communities as it will *only* be State schools which remain open next week.
INSET days were removed from final days due to Covid.
Track and trace has failed spectacularly -especially at peak.
Now imagine asking an 11 year old: Who sat behind you in French on Thursday?
Who was on your Left, R, F, B?
What about Science on Friday?
Which room you were in?
Even a teacher wouldn't know w/o a seating plan!
And finally there is this...
Parents are now reporting a positive and refusing to take children for a PCR they are opting to isolate.
This may be a way to protect their holiday plans.
BUT there will be true positives too as cases are high.
This is a common phenomenon with all lateral flow testing. There is no amplification of the sample and so you are only testing what you have - if there isn't much there the line will be faint. You see the same with pregnancy tests (also lateral flow).
They use immobilised antibodies and markers that bind to the antigens on the reservoir pad and then migrate along the test. As they move across binding reagents will bind the target to the test line. The larger the sample of whatever you are testing for the stronger the line.
1/ When schools returned in 09/2020 the focus was on 'Hands' and surfaces.
There was no desire by @GOVUK to implement 'Face'masks.
And no extra 'Space' available,
Nightingale schools dismissed.
2/ "All children must be in school." we were told "There is little evidence of Covid transmission in school.".
* They were right because in the Summer term very few children had returned for face to face teaching and children spent lots of time outside and in tiny bubbles.
3/ Cases started to rise rapidly in children.
A fire break at halfterm dismissed. Schools went back and cases continued to accelerate upwards.
So in early November we partially added 'Face'masks to the equation.
But, ONLY
in communal areas,
in Secondary
AND
optionally.
2/Their unknown risks have not been made clear to them, their employers or schools expecting CEV children and children of CEV back.
We know the vaccine might not offer adequate protection and additional risks are posed by variants of concern.
3/The best chance of safety is unofficial shielding something many CV have done all along. Without understanding employers, online working an option, they were forced onto benefits.
Difficult choices lie ahead. Risk assessments don't account for #COVIDisAirborne. Even with ⬇️