Dear Parents/Carers
As you are aware, transmission rates of Covid-19 continue to remain high in the community and will have an impact on the day-to-day life of St Joseph’s. However, with your support, we hope to minimise disruption as much as possible.
If your child is identified as a close contact, we will inform you as soon as possible by phone and by letter via SeeSaw. You then will need to follow the advice from the Public Health Authority (PHA); this differs depending on whether your child has had a positive PCR test in the previous 90 days.
- If your child has had a positive PCR test in the last 90 days
If your child has had a positive PCRtest in the last 90 days AND has no new symptoms, you do not need to take any action and your child can continue to attend school. Retesting is not advised in recently infected people who are well, because PCR tests can continue to find non-infectious parts of the virus for several weeks. However, if your child does develop new symptoms they should stay at home and get a free PCR test as soon as possible. They should self-isolate at home until they get the result of that test.
- If your child has not had a positive PCR test in the last 90 days
Please arrange a free PCR test as soon as possible even if they do not have any symptoms. They should self-isolateat home until they get the result of the test. The rest of the household can carry on with their normal activities as long as all are well. If that test result is negative your child can return to school. However please book another PCR test 8 days after their last known contact with the confirmed case. If either test is positive they should self-isolate for 10 days from the date the positive test was done.
If the test is positive:
A newperiod of self-isolation will begin for your child, for 10 days from the date of the test. You will be contacted by the PHA contact tracing service who will ask about the vaccination status of adults in the household to decide whether they need to self-isolate, identify other contacts and provide you with advice about what to do next. If your child is well at the end of the period of self-isolation, then they can return to usual activities.
What to do if your child develops symptoms of COVID 19
The most common symptoms of COVID-19 are recent onset of:
- new continuous cough and/or
- high temperature and/or
- a loss of, or change in, normal sense of taste or smell (anosmia)
If your child is experiencing any of these symptoms, please book a free PCR test, even if an earlier one was negative. Your child should stay at home and self-isolate until you receive the result. Please see Coronavirus (COVID-19): self-isolating | nidirect for guidance on whether other people in your household also need to self-isolate while you are waiting for your child’s PCR result.
To help us keep a record of PCR tests, I would appreciate it if proof of a negative result was sent to your child’s class teacher.
It is with the cooperation of the whole school community that we can mitigate the spread of Covid-19 and keep the impact of Covid 19 to a minimum.
Kind regards
Mr Donaldson