Has lockdown really worked? 66 new cases this week in son's school- post lockdown (in lowish infection area)!

[Annie1919]

We are in tier 2 and school is taking all govt recommended measures yet still had 66 positive test results this week! (throughout every year group). DD's football also cancelled this week due to another positive case (not linked to school and from surrounding borough). Seems to me cases are soaring!?

That is wild Is school closed? Was there a big party or something

Are the cases related or is it just that bad in the community? Our local secondary has had a few cases but they are from others outside school rather than pupil to pupil...

Who does your school isolate when you have a case? DS' school (secondary) started by only isolating the child sitting next to a positive case. When that clearly wasnt working , they started sending home every child within a 2m radius and that helped get numbers back under control. But numbers have been very high here (T3) so people have started to take things more seriouslyfinally.

@happytoday73

Are the cases related or is it just that bad in the community? Our local secondary has had a few cases but they are from others outside school rather than pupil to pupil...

No community rates are around 100 per 100,00!

Lockdown had much less impact on the infection rates in secondary school students than other age groups, they’re the most infected subset of the population. If it gets into a school, there’s nothing to stop it spreading.

@PrivateD00r

That is wild Is school closed? Was there a big party or something

If there was a party- we weren't invited! School following PHE guidance. Some year groups closed and some smaller bubble closed but school not closed. TG my son is in closed bubble!

That's crazy! How big is the school? DD's school is 1000 and had 1 case.

@Porcupineinwaiting

Who does your school isolate when you have a case? DS' school (secondary) started by only isolating the child sitting next to a positive case. When that clearly wasnt working , they started sending home every child within a 2m radius and that helped get numbers back under control. But numbers have been very high here (T3) so people have started to take things more seriouslyfinally.

It's been all chn in tutor group (they spend most of day together)and any child sat within 2m, in ability sets. PLUS 3 whole year groups now!

I posted this on another thread:

Here are some calculations based on ONS infection survey data. I calculated the percentage drop in infection rates in the various age groups from the start of lockdown (data only available till 28th Nov but should be a good indicator of overall impact)

Up to Y6 31.3%
Y7-Y11 4%
Y12-age 24 25.1%
25-34 31.5%
35-49 40.8%
50-69 28.7%
70+ 45%

@confusednortherner

That's crazy! How big is the school? DD's school is 1000 and had 1 case.

240 per year plus 6th form. So probably about 1500?

@noblegiraffe

I posted this on another thread:

Here are some calculations based on ONS infection survey data. I calculated the percentage drop in infection rates in the various age groups from the start of lockdown (data only available till 28th Nov but should be a good indicator of overall impact)

Up to Y6 31.3%
Y7-Y11 4%
Y12-age 24 25.1%
25-34 31.5%
35-49 40.8%
50-69 28.7%
70+ 45%

Interesting! Why aren't they shutting secondary schools? When rates were this high amongst Uni students, there was an outcry! Secondary school students are coming home to their families EVERY day!

If it gets into a school, there’s nothing to stop it spreading.

DS school (circa 1400 pupils) has had 8 cases since September, so I can't say I agree with this l.

@confusednortherner

That's crazy! How big is the school? DD's school is 1000 and had 1 case.

Similar to my DC's school, a couple of isolated cases but thankfully no spread. Its crazy how different it is between schools!

Why aren't they shutting secondary schools?

Or even introducing basic mitigation measures like masks?

They’re denying the data. They fiddled the data on teachers getting infected too.

DS school (circa 1400 pupils) has had 8 cases since September, so I can't say I agree with this

How do you know? Most kids won’t display symptoms or if they do, not the symptoms that trigger a test.

@noblegiraffe

I posted this on another thread:

Here are some calculations based on ONS infection survey data. I calculated the percentage drop in infection rates in the various age groups from the start of lockdown (data only available till 28th Nov but should be a good indicator of overall impact)

Up to Y6 31.3%
Y7-Y11 4%
Y12-age 24 25.1%
25-34 31.5%
35-49 40.8%
50-69 28.7%
70+ 45%

Any idea why primary has seen such a big decrease during lockdown but secondary not?

in the children's school there were only 300 pupils self isolating now after a weeks closure. There were about 600 pupils isolating before.

we have not been contacted about any positive cases for a few days. Before closure it was one or more most days.

My daughter's secondary school had literally only had to ask a handful of pupils to self isolate since September... until this week that is - there have been cases in yrs 7, 8, 9 & 10 - my youngest is in yr7 and 2 whole tutor groups have been sent home to self isolate. My oldest is in yr10 and one of her close friends tested positive on Wednesday so she is having to isolate until 16th Dec... we found out today that a 2nd member of dd's friendship group has tested positive too. About 30 pupils from year 10 are currently self isolating. In his weekly email the headteacher said there are currently 184 pupils self isolating - definitely the highest number since the schools went back in September. Xxx

We are in tier 3 with 1 cleaner catching it out of 2 schools.

It varies widely even in the same areas.

The thing is that most people with Covid don't spread it. Even to the people they live with.
But a minority of people spread it to LOTS. Superspreaders. And teenagers / young adults are more likely to be superspreaders, especially when in superspreader ideal conditions (indoors, crowded, poor ventilation, no masks - i.e. classrooms).
So you can have many cases in a school seeded by the community, but no super spreader. But get one or two super spreaders, the kaboom! In a school it can really let go...

@noblegiraffe

Lockdown had much less impact on the infection rates in secondary school students than other age groups, they’re the most infected subset of the population. If it gets into a school, there’s nothing to stop it spreading.

But oddly, it doesn’t always spread. My DD was her school’s third ever case. She was feeling ropey for a couple of days before she got a cough and we tested her so presumably spread it around nicely. One other boy got it at almost the same time as her. Whole year group isolated and no one else got it. It’s very odd. Good though.

@MrsM36

My daughter's secondary school had literally only had to ask a handful of pupils to self isolate since September... until this week that is - there have been cases in yrs 7, 8, 9 & 10 - my youngest is in yr7 and 2 whole tutor groups have been sent home to self isolate. My oldest is in yr10 and one of her close friends tested positive on Wednesday so she is having to isolate until 16th Dec... we found out today that a 2nd member of dd's friendship group has tested positive too. About 30 pupils from year 10 are currently self isolating. In his weekly email the headteacher said there are currently 184 pupils self isolating - definitely the highest number since the schools went back in September. Xxx

Yes, this is the highest week of infections in DD's school too, by far!

Any idea why primary has seen such a big decrease during lockdown but secondary not

I wonder if primary school DC are more likely to catch it from parents so numbers dropped inline with the adults in the household?

Perhaps secondary kids are more likely to catch it in school, so nothing changed with lockdown?

I don't even know if that makes sense

In my kids schools (primary = 200 kid’s) and (secondary = 1000 kids) there have been 4 positive cases since September. The primary school case the idiot parents sent the child into school whilst waiting for the test results! Still didn’t result in a surge in symptoms. Now I know that some kids don’t display symptoms but that would be true for the school in the OP so 66 positive cases does seem like a lot and either the school isn’t following social distancing measures or the community isn’t and there is a lot of mixing.
Very stereotypical but we are in a rural county with no diversity. People don’t live near families (most of my friends are like me and family live elsewhere in the country) so it might be a different environment if the OP lives in an inner city with lots of different cultures who may be more likely to live multigenerational etc

greyishdays it is so weird! I didn't pass it my DH who insisted on sleeping in the same bed as me, even though I was coughing literally non stop. Thankfully I didn't pass it on to the patients I was with a few hours before I got symptoms (I was wearing my paper mask, they weren't). The pp explains it well with the superspreader theory, I am so glad I wasn't one!