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

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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!?

I'm normally one for being non-alarmist about CV risk, but I'm absolutely mystified at Public Health's advice to schools. This teacher will have been in contact with various teaching colleagues, people she teaches, and anyone else who may have been in the corridor when she was coughing, yet that is minimal risk? If only 5 people catch CV from her, they in turn will have been spending time with friends in school before the illness became evident, to say nothing of their friends and relatives at home. If each of them spreads it to 5 people, suddenly known cases in the area have gone up 5-fold, and on it goes.

Does anyone know how the PHO justifies this advice?

We received an advice sheet from our secondary school today. It states:
If someone (pupil / staff) thinks they might have Covid-19 they should phone 111. If someone presents with
symptoms at school they will be isolated whilst their parents are contacted (if a pupil). A decision will then
be made over who phones 111. Staff presenting with symptoms will be asked to go home (unless severely ill)
and phone 111. In both cases, if a test is advised by 111, the person concerned should self-isolate until the
results are known. The school remains open as normal and all other pupils / staff should attend until the
results are known.
If a test is positive then PHE will advise the school on what action to take.
So I'm guessing that Public Health England is advising schools to remain open in circumstances like this. I very much doubt the school is taking this decision unilaterally.

I would keep them at home. Youngsters can issue a self certificate. A school from nearby were able to self certify if they wanted. They had been on a school trip to Italy!
Relatives nearby.

Yes take a look at worldometer.

The advice on this site makes a lot of sense to me.

www.flattenthecurve.com/

So my son's school will be closed tomorrow for 3 days. No confirmed coronavirus but a lot of staff off with 'flu-like' symptoms - so they are shut until Monday for a deep clean. If they are doing that basic deep clean at my local school over some flu symptoms why aren't they for schools with confirmed coronavirus? Where is the consistency?

The government is taking advice from the medical experts . So stop just blaming boris for everything . The advice may change within the next few days. But I am surprised the school is not doing a deep clean . Surely some things are common sense .

mind it was a bad joke in that - god created the world and seeing as no where is left untouched, where the fuck is the propagnda coming from?

I’m not alarmist either normally. I went on holiday peak SARs and Ebola. But this is serious due to the fact that it is so more infectious.

Closing schools will be a real tipping point for what happens economically. Parents will stay at home to look after them and make sure teenagers are actually in the house. The impact then on businesses and other services will be significant. Think how many parents will be nurses, Drs, care workers, nursery staff, shop workers, NHS staff, cleaners, home-helps etc- all vital in this situation.

I am a SAHM but if I was still working and schools closed either DH or I would have to stay at home to look after the DC. PiL could not do it.

Well, the virus first started in China and we don't usually trust information from the Chinese government, but now all of a sudden we do? Also, how did all the videos from the Chinese doctors etc leak out when we usually get nothing leaked out by China. I smell a little bit of a rat with some of the information we are being fed. All governments have their agendas and fear is a very easy way to deliver them.

Maybe I have watched too many conspiracy theory videos lately, but I also think most people are far too trusting of authority. It is good to maintain a bit of healthy scepticism. I think it's unhealthy to be glued to the news, lapping up every piece of information they feed you.

@mindproject my partners company has main suppliers in China and they’ve said it’s sooo much worse than the government making out

We don’t have any (diagnosed) cases in our area at the moment so I’m “watching and waiting”. However both dh and I have health issues which make us vulnerable and ds3 has asthma. We are avoiding large groups and enclosed spaces at the moment and if people start being diagnosed locally I will keep ds3 home at least until after Easter. Keep your boys home.

Advice to schools is awful.

I think they need to be asked, in those circumstances can they guarantee dc safety to the same degree as a parent would?.

Can they guarantee that dc won't get it? Cast iron guarantee?
I'm surprised lots of the posher schools didn't get closures with the expensie skiing tips etc.

@mindproject, I agree in general that news from the Chinese government is probably not to be trusted. But that's scarier because in all likelihood if they are lying, they are probably minimising just how bad things are. And this whole thread is about people not understanding government advice, thinking it's wrong, considering going against it... the opposite of people blindly following what they've been told.

In most cases teenagers won’t need parents to stay at home with them all day.

In most cases teenagers won’t need parents to stay at home with them all day

They don't but it's a big practical issue if the parents are at work and the teenagers need to eat, assuming they are lucky enough to have a spare room to self isolate do the parents have to prepare food for them all day, organise loo and washing facilities for them? I don't know what I'd do, I don't effective isolating means playing video games all day in the main parts of the house as if it was a fortnight of Inset days.

Schools are being told to stay open as long as possible because the Government had two choices: prioritise our health or prioritise the economy.

They have chosen to prioritise the economy.

Closing schools now would mean fewer people are infected, the rate of spread of the virus would slow down and the NHS would be better able to cope as a result.

But it would mean people would have to stay off work so they're not doing it.

This article explains why closing schools would help:

www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/03/does-closing-schools-slow-spread-novel-coronavirus

If they don’t close schools the nhs will have normal flu and this to deal with all at once. Not ideal at all.

They have chosen to prioritise the economy

That's not necessarily a bad thing. Lots of posts on Mumsnet from people who could loose their homes, their livelihoods etc. It's not like the economy doesn't affect us all.

The above shows why the teacher should’ve self isolated

The school should do a deep clean no doubt, but I presume most people are expecting the police,ambulance,fire,nurses and doctors to work? So what happens to their children if they’ve got nobody to look after them.

The above shows why the teacher should’ve self isolated
Why? They went on holiday to an area that wasn't deemed at risk and went to work without symptoms prior to that area being flagged?
Should everyone call up work and say "I'm self isolating because I have no symptoms and haven't been in an identified risky area"?

Of course the teacher should have self isolated. Not only that, the school should have insisted on it. Idiotic. What kind of thinking adult needs precise instructions on the government before cracking out their common sense. Our head teacher ejected anyone (for 2 weeks) who'd been to Italy immediately after half term because he used his bloody brain rather than waiting for big brother to give him instructions as though he didn't have a brain in his head.

Handwashing is useless when people's brains don't function independently of the state.

I don't see the point keeping schools open
1 if all the kids get it then next parents e.g. Gps
2 parents who are gps and nurses are likely going to catch it at work (especially as we are all being told it can't be that) and give it to their kids who give it to other kids and other proffessionals

To doubling the chances of drs getting it