DCs school has coronavirus and they’re not shutting the school!?

[Hdbeksnxbkxdnk]

My DCs school has had a confirmed case of coronavirus. One of their teachers who has been in school and has taught both DC this week!!!
School isn’t shutting! The DCs have been given information about the virus and symptoms to look out for.
This is really scaring me! Any of those DCs and other teachers could have it. Any of them could have gone home and passed it onto parents/grandparents/people who go to the same clubs in the community! I know it doesn’t really affect children as much as adults but doesn’t mean they can’t be carriers. We’re not exactly talking young children either. Both my DCs are teenagers.

Debating keeping the DC off school for the next 2 weeks? Am I overreacting!?

This makes no sense. The NHS 111 coronavirus page has a questionnaire about what you should do. Advice is if you have been in close contact with a confirmed coronavirus case, which includes "being within 2 metres of the person for more than 15 minutes" or "face-to-face contact, for example, talking for more than a few minutes" then you should self isolate for 14 days. That must include all children the teacher has taught plus a lot of staff, surely??

111.nhs.uk/covid-19

I think you should keep them off for 14 days and say you are following NHS guidance.

Yes oxoxo. Pointless really

It does seem like the advice is contradictory. Many of those pupils will have had close contact with the teacher. And the staff in the staff room.
I would challenge it. They cannot have schools following different advice to the rest of the country. If they are saying that is the case they need to justify why.

@Onemorehit, please tell me where I said old people were expendable? When my DH went into cardiac arrest, fortunately in an ambulance, at 50, our child was 7, so I was at similar risk to you, and only five years older. I hate to give you bad news, but more older people die than younger ones. That is raw statistics. Most people who die are older.

That is crazy! I'd definitely be keeping my DC off.

I’m definitely leaning towards no school tomorrow. It’s too much of a risk. I can’t face sending an immunosuppressive child into that environment. I’m quite happy to say, follow your school time table and revise to DC1 ask if you need help, and follow your school timetable and I’ll help out with DC2.
As far as I’m aware, School isn’t being deep cleaned. I don’t know why.
We had an email saying that because both DC have been taught by the teacher, PHE will be contacting us to follow up and give advice over the next few days. We shall see what happens.

I think we are on our own with this one. Keep washing hands is starting to sound like the plane thing when crashing put your head between your legs.

That's terrible, and I'm normally in the camp of 'calm down with the panic buying and extreme hype'.

I can see why the teacher came into work if they were symptomless and their holiday destination wasn't on the list. What I don't understand is once knowing there's been a case why the school isn't closing given that advice on NHS is to self isolate if you've been in contact with someone with the virus. How are the students meant to remember if they've been in a crowd at lesson changeover (usually 5 or 6 lessons a day, plus break, lunch, hometime) near the member of staff, or near a student who has been near the teacher?

If you think about it though, unless in reception, do teachers actually some into close contact with children? I suppose they do. But is it similar to say contact with a family member or friend, 1 to 1?
It absolutely is close contact. I teach secondary and regularly walk around the room, crouch down next to students to read their work and support them, stand close to them for a quiet chat when needed. Corridors in many schools aren't wide so staff and students are regularly shoulder to shoulder at lesson changeover.

Keep 'em off. If school doesn't close for deep clean then they are being irresponsible in the extreme IMO.

That's odd. One of our local schools has a confirmed case (a teacher) and they've closed the school for a deep clean.

To the person writing about Bulgaria, the Czech Republic is the same, a relative of mine tells me they have closed all schools, universities, no theatres, public gatherings and no hospital visits either, or to care homes.

There is no other country in mainland Europe that I know of that still has all their schools open including where cases have been found. Dubai, UAE, China, schools closed. Even some US universities have stopped doing face to face lessons and are moving online.

I don't get it- I read a few days ago that 290 million students are now out of schools. We won't be the only ones who are facing issues with childcare or economic consequences! If there is a reason for NOT closing schools with confirmed cases- and the rest of the world who have corona have got it wrong, we need this explaining very clearly to us.

I would not hesitate to take an immune compromised child out of school, it's also worth noting that we are one of the only countries to penalize, criminalize and fine parents for taking their children out of school for illness and this has created some type of dread and fear of removing children for any reason, let alone a small but significant risk. People here are scared to put the wrong bin out on a given day, we are utterly fearful of these ridiculous rules and edicts- my friends in other countries think the UK is bonkers about school attendance and that was before the corona palava.

That’s insane. Meanwhile Vietnamese government tell British citizens who got infected on a flight from Heathrow that most carriers don’t have symptoms

He said: “Last night [Sunday] we were told that we had the virus, although my wife and I do not have symptoms. I asked how can that be? I was told 80% of people carrying the virus do not have symptoms. So it’s like catching a ghost if that’s correct. article

I guess Greece, Czech Republic, Lebanon, Spain... just full of government spreading hysteria closing their schools.

By the way, I am not saying all schools have to be closed. Options include only teaching Year 11's, staying open on a reduced staff for childcare/essential workers, bringing the Easter holidays forward two weeks (so starting end of this week) and then having two weeks of online schooling prepared in this time (they are doing this in Dubai), only closing schools where there is a confirmed case for a short period. All of these are options- but in the UK, weirdly, schools are not seen as transmission points, even though I can't see how a teacher could go through a week at school without being in at least prolonged contact with a couple of pupils or speaking for a while with them, or bending down and talking with them.

@Hdbeksnxbkxdnk

Dr John Campbell is doing daily updates on YouTube. This is today.

In your case I'd keep mine off, if one has an autoimmune disease you just don't know how they'd react to it if they caught it. I'm a teacher and I have to say the kids I'm seeing aren't being particularly cautious - think of all the borrowed pens/pencils/ colouring in stuff/jotters being handed out/ computer keyboards being touched and so on. I would be wondering where the teacher got it from - could there be pupils that are asymptomatic and carrying it? A week of them working at home and then re-assess sounds reasonable. We are making sure we have teaching resources online for all of our pupils just in case it escalates.

I'd keep an immuno-suppressed child at home, I'd stay in myself if I was vulnerable but I don't think a school has to close because of the possibility of one person having the virus.

Yanbu, keep them off. They should at least by closing for a deep clean, other UK schools are doing this, some for four days.

Those saying "oh but it will spread anyway" or "it's mainly elderly people anyway" are also missing the fact that a sudden massive influx of patients needing intensive hospital treatment will put enormous pressure on an already over-stretched NHS, so that will mean people with other serious illnesses or accidents won't get seen.

If we can manage to slow down the spread of the disease, not only does that leave the hope of a vaccine; it also means we can carry on saving other lives in the meantime and organise the hospitals to be better prepared for a later influx.

The Italian health services is far better resourced than the NHS, they have far more hospital beds, but even so they are now at a stage where they have to decide who gets the respirator and who has to be left to die.

In China, several doctors died; that is another thing that will have an impact beyond that on their immediate families.

A school local to us has a confirmed case in a pupil also not shutting at all and even that pupils close contacts not advised to stay at home

The college has got it but open near me and the school has been on a skiing trip and many have a cough but open and won’t tell us what’s going on. Ffs it’s horrible sending my children in.

I’d keep mine off until the school had a deep clean!

www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-to-educational-settings-about-covid-19/guidance-to-educational-settings-about-covid-19

Link to DfE guidelines. They say that even with a confirmed case, closure will probably not be necessary.

My kids go to that school too. They’re going in.

Having an autoimmune condition does not mean you are immunocompromised. If you take medications which suppress your immune system, such as e.g. infliximab, sure. Otherwise, no.

My theory on schools not shutting;
This is evolving process. We are learning more about CV as each week passes. Practices adopted in China, Italy may or may not be effective. What we do know is that children can catch CV, but their propensity to catch it is very low and symptoms are milder. My theory is that the powers that be are not closing schools not deep-cleaning in order to expose children to the virus and to create immunity (think chicken pox party). This is obviously a problem for immuo compromised individuals but helpful to overall society.