Dr. Colm Henry:

The emerging evidence is that child to child transmission in school settings is relatively uncommon. We are gaining more evidence on the behaviour of this virus in educational settings as schools open up in other countries. That said, it is inevitable that there will be suspect cases, cases and there may even be outbreaks. That is the price we must pay in order to open schools again, with all of the educational, health and welfare benefits this brings to children. Public health departments will apply the same principles as they do to outbreaks in other settings and will take a risk assessment approach. In any outbreak setting, they will look at the individual characteristics of the school, the rates of community transmission, the number of cases in the school and the number of serious illnesses that might emerge - which would be very uncommon and unusual in children - as well as hospitalised cases and ICU admissions. They will also look at the interplay with the community, the infrastructure of the school and the capability of the school to adhere to infection prevention and control measures. In some schools, for example, special needs areas may require more intimate connection between people, with unavoidable breaches of social distancing guidelines. It is not a tick-box exercise but an individual assessment based on a set of principles by public health consultants who have the expertise and experience to-----