A review of international public health guidance on Covid-19 and the reopening of schools has found general agreement that health screening measures, including temperature screening, should not be conducted.
Ireland's Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) looked at 96 guidance documents across 20 countries and two international health bodies, in relation to identifying and managing symptoms in children and young people attending school.
It appears from the study that the Irish approach to managing Covid-19 in schools is generally in keeping with approaches that have been adopted internationally.
The HIQA review found that in general the symptoms associated with Covid-19 were consistent across guidance documents.
It found agreement that if a child or young person becomes symptomatic, they should be isolated rapidly.
It found widespread agreement also that decisions to close schools should not be taken without input from public health authorities.
Guidance documents also generally recommended that the local level of community transmission should be a key consideration when deciding whether schools should remain open or close, the review found.
HIQA said this reflects the guidance most recently published by the Government on the reopening of schools and the guidance from the HSE on the management of Covid-19 in schools.
Dr Máirín Ryan, HIQA's Deputy CEO and Director of Health Technology Assessment, said it was important that Irish guidance was informed by international best practice in the context of rapidly evolving evidence.
The review found that no jurisdiction apart from Singapore was recommending daily temperature and symptom screening of students in schools.
"In our review, we found that most guidance documents acknowledged the difficulty of there being no single symptom that is uniquely predictive of a Covid-19 diagnosis and that many of the symptoms are shared with the common cold, which regularly affects children. Additionally, many children who have Covid-19 have no symptoms," Dr Ryan said.
"As the current pandemic is evolving, and more evidence emerges, guidance on the management and identification of Covid-19 in schools may need to be updated."
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The review notes that the evidence to date suggests that children and young people experience mostly mild symptoms if infected by Covid-19, and that there is limited evidence of child to child and child to adult transmission.
It also notes evidence that prolonged school closures are likely to harm their social, psychological, and education development.
The jurisdictions looked at included European countries as well as the US and Canada. World Health Organization and European Centre for Disease Control guidance documents were also examined.
Meanwhile, the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HSPC) has published an 'isolation quick guide' in conjunction with the Irish College of GPs for children aged between three months to 13 years old.
HPSC and @ICGPnews have published an 'isolation quick guide' which can be applied to those aged greater than 3 months up to 13th birthday. Scenarios from the guide can be found in the attached image. For full guide see https://t.co/Z7pTnKCHsU pic.twitter.com/iLhlSUgZSN
— HSE Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) (@hpscireland) September 4, 2020
It includes advice about how to react to various situations from a runny nose to travelling from a non-Green List country.
