Schools with Covid 19 cases in UK

[guilttripjourno]

Just saw this tweet.

Numbers climbing especially for England

100 UK Schools with Coronavirus infections in its population

• Wales 1
• England 11
• N. Ireland 15
• Scotland 73

twitter.com/ToryFibs/status/1301599811863539713?s=20

The school in Dundee with about 20 staff with it must have been in school transmission too

Without compulsory and daily accurate rapid mass testing - does anyone think these recorded statistics are a true account taking into consideration likelihood of undetected asymptomatic super spreading? I suspect one of the reasons for 50k UK Covid fatalities is not only due to comorbidity, obesity and lack of PPE, social distancing and all other best practice proactive Covid risk mitigation measures - but simply inadvertent community infection or super spreading undetected.

The thing is we know there will be cases in schools , cases transmitted in schools, that is a given, no-one can deny that is going to happen.

The question is what is our tolerance to those cases happening ? What is more preferable, schools being open or closed ? Most people would argue that schools being open is a good thing, but what level of illness/mortality is seen as acceptable in that case ?

There still seems to be complete denial that this can be transmitted in schools (even in this thread it’s downplayed or ignored). It’s an interesting ostrich type reaction which is confusing. I wouldn’t say these numbers are scary (the reality is many cases will be asymptomatic so this is the tip of the iceberg). But the refusal to admit it is being transmitted in schools I do find scary as it limits reactions if/when it gets worse.

Tory Fibs is a twitter account who blocks anyone who doesn’t agree with his sensationalist far left world view. I would take anything he tweets with a very big pinch of salt.

@crystal1983 so are the figures incorrect ?

I’m obviously not the one collecting the figures but my point is don’t believe every random idiot on Twitter

I’m furious at the moment at the downplaying of the two schools in Glasgow where there has been confirmed to be in school transmission. The news story was very quickly moved down the BBC Scotland news page after it was posted last night. I am convinced also that the line about not releasing more details due to confidentiality confirms that it’s not just among staff it’s spread - there seems to have been lots of details in every other school-linked outbreak about how many pupils/staff are positive. Teachers and pupils (and so by extension their families) are being absolutely thrown to the wolves here.

As a parent to a primary age young child I know very well that as apprehensive as I am about return to physical in school education, I have no option but to return as cannot wfh and copilot temporary teaching simultaneously forever. I suspect schools will be disruptive and result in a cycle of closures and reopenings. I hope those Covid impacted will recover (although no one knows the scientific details of long term health damage) for survivors. I know full well that an over subscribed school in central London with little building space will be a perfect incubation station for adult staff and little children who cannot be robotically controllable to remain socially distanced not that there is even the physical space indoors or outdoors to do so anyway. The school like most in England I suspect will have no physical shielding around desks (as found overseas) nor any actual effective Covid risk mitigation management apart from expected superficial lip service and nothing more. The use of face coverings for pupils is not even requested! It is not discouraged but not encouraged either. Seems like they are opening because of government instructions and not even attempting to make concerted risk mitigation measures apart from hand washing and requesting non pupil use of TfL rush hour commuter mass public transportation and staggered morning arrival and afternoon exit times. It will all start next week as the school is making ever effort in limiting the number of days in school (despite loss teaching days so far) as obviously after half a year the school will require an extra week to sort of logistics. I will not be surprised if the school closes again shortly after maybe two weeks reopening. That is my low expectation. If I am more optimistic then possibly safe(ish) for over a month. I hope no one pays the ultimate cost as with any indoor prolonged packed setting!

The one in Wales is that two year groups aren't going back till later because one of the staff members who was preparing in the school this week for their return has tested positive - so all the staff in that bubble have to self isolate so the kids have been told they can't come back yet - none of them were actually exposed - obviously Scotland and NI are going to be different as the schools had already reopened, some of the other schools though may be similar

Only heard of a handful of schools in scotland with covid cases. Does this include cases since March time or since schools went back around 6 weeks ago?

This is absolutely now. I'm surprised you haven't heard of more

So what? We knew this would happen. It doesn’t change the fact that schools need to be open. People just have to isolate, wait for it to pass, and get back on with it. Covid is going to be with us for years, we have to learn to live with it. Some people will die but the vast majority won’t. Same as with all infectious diseases.

I'm not sure why anyone would be surprised of any outbreaks. The risk for an outbreak in work places, restaurants, schools, and other venues are still present.
It's just about dealing with them as and when they arise.

@Mintychoc1 is that you Gavin ?

Some people will die but the vast majority won’t. So how many is 'some' ? What is your personal cut off ?

Don't get me wrong, I think re-opening schools is generally speaking a very good thing, but to have less safeguards in schools than if I pop to my local supermarket just seems a bit weird ? If we are considering reducing transmissions in an enclosed environment ?

Most of us are WFH including Parliament as workplaces are still not secure. But teachers have to still work in these unsafe conditions. No one is backing them up here.

Some of us will die. Didn't Boris told us the same. Look more than 41k are dead.

I'm in Scotland and in my local area only 2 out of 7 local High schools have covid and none of the 40+ primarys have any.
I think that's pretty good going and proves that they are doing something right

Currently alcohol kills twice as many people per day as Covid 19. We accept this fact, and still sell it, drink it etc. It’s part of life. 20 times more people die of smoking than of Covid per day currently.
I think we have to start seeing Covid as one of life’s risks, and do our best to avoid it, whilst still continuing to live our lives. We can’t shut the world down for ever.

@Cabinfever10 that's interesting, so more than a quarter of the high schools have covid so far , not sure how long they have been open for ? but non of the primary schools, where I imagine there is more control over the before and after school mixing ?

Out of how many schools and pupils? That should help perspective

Looked it up, over 24000 schools in England and just under 9 million pupils across them

I get the fear teachers are facing and that they feel vulnerable. But it's not exclusive to teaching. I feel vulnerable every day I go into work at the factory I work at. We just have to try and get on with it. People have and will die and I hate that - but we can't hide away forever and just need to try and help ourselves and minimise risks. I always have a little bottle of hand gel, I don't wear a mask at work but where possible I do wear one. No matter what you do for a living it's going to be scary but all we can do is try and minimise risks and be brave and ride it out.

Table with Covid deaths no time limit.

This is still substantial.
public health England - assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/911146/COVID-19_Death_Series_20200821.xlsx
xx

There is an article on the bbc website which details which schools have Covid in Scotland. I could go through the list counting them up which I might do later. 73 prob does sound about right though.