Sydney primary school closes, close contacts isolate with a Covid case on day 3
smh.com.au/national/nsw/day-one-of-school-bal...
smh.com.auPosted Oct 22, 2021, 7:41 AM UTC
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smh.com.auZeroCovid_edu compiles list of schools that are closed due to covid cases, updated daily. According to them, the number of reported school closure in NSW since the start of Term 4 is currently 75 schools.
The school in this article is 2 suburbs away, the parents posted about the closure on our local FB group. Afaik it only closed for one day so only the close contacts need to isolate for 14 days (which is way too long imho).
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How is this going to work? If we are supposed to be living with Covid we can't shut down every time a case pops up.
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Apparently in the UK, they send home everyone who has been identified as a close contact and school carries on as normal. Once those contacts return a negative test, they can come back to school.
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Sounds more practical.
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It’s a fine line thou, knowing kids under 12 can’t get vaccinated you can’t just let it go through the school and therefore continue to circulate in the community. TTIQ still needs to be a thing to keep numbers somewhat under control.
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The thing is positive cases are always going to have to isolate. At 300 cases a day if you decide to not isolate the 5x close contacts then in a month you will have that many close contacts anyway.
At least that was happened to the UK. The lowest they got was 1,500 cases a day and they baulked at having 15,000 close contacts I. Quarantine. Reff stayed above 1 and they now have > 35,000 a day go into quarantine. That is over a million a month!
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I guess I am thinking that just the case isolates. Like we do with other kids ailments like a sore throat, cold sores etc.
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Covid is a tougher nut to crack.
The issue is that Delta has an R0 of ~6 which is much higher than those other ailments meaning that it will spread much faster.
Also you are infectious before you show symptoms.
https://www.healthline.com/health/r-naught-reproduction-number
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Yep my kid’s primary school closed today!
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The whole school or just exposed classes?
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Not the person you are responding to, but my school (I'm a teacher, but currently on mat leave) was closed yesterday because of a positive case being on site earlier in the week. It was closed to all yesterday, and teachers were not required to provide remote learning tasks. Deep cleaning took place and close contacts were identified. Those classes and teachers identified as PCC were then put into iso, and other classes were allowed back today. We're in Casey and on the same day 3 or 4 other schools here had the exact same thing happen. I can imagine we may end up in a situation where we have a school close, then reopen for a day or two, then another case identified and shut down for another day, lather, rinse, repeat. It's going to awful for kids and hell for parents and I wonder if they will change the way its handled because it will be untenable.
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Thanks for the in depth response. It’s kinda rock in a hard place scenario. Cause whichever way you look at it, the outcome is going to be terrible. COVID cases running through schools is not something that would be endorsed but also open, close, open, close is not something that can be maintained long term and there are no vaccinations for 5-11 anytime soon. So how do they handle it from here on out? There is no easy answer.
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I absolutely agree. For now, they have committed to the TTIQ plan, but I imagine that will at some point shift to how all other infectious illnesses are treated in schools:
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A department letter is sent home to the students in the class outlining that there has been a confirmed case of influenza/chickenpox/slapcheek/hand foot and mouth in their class, here are the symptoms to watch for, here are the steps to take if you notice the symptoms in your child.
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The unwell child stays home from school until they return with medical clearance.
That's it. Obviously we are some way off treating Covid in schools like this because it would be such a departure from the TTIQ standards outlined in both Doherty and Burnett modelling, but I think there will have to be a point we pivot.
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Whole school that had returned, so K-1 and essential worker kids. All kids had to be picked up mid afternoon. Hoping to be reopened for whole school to return on Monday. What’s the chances? I thought this was my last day homeschooling?!?!?
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While I expect this will keep happening, I thought they reduced the iso time to 7 days? Or does that not apply to kids?
Clearly 14 days will be unsustainable, especially if they include the whole household.
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Well shit.
🤣
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Think 7 days is for vaccinated.
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Oh, so very shocked am I. Shocked and amazed, and astounded, and flabbergasted. Never has my flabber been so gasted. How could this possibly have happened...
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Already happened to our kids school a couple of weeks ago and that was when kids of only essential workers were allowed. Going to happen again. We'll roll with it. Get vaccinated y'all.