Parents and pupils across St Helens are being urged to increase their Covid -testing following outbreaks of the virus in several schools in the borough during the past two weeks.
The outbreaks have affected a number of schools in the borough with one school, St Augustine of Canterbury High School, closing for two days earlier this week to enable a deep clean. This follows 50 new positive Covid-19 cases being confirmed in the school (up to September 13th), with 23 of them in the same year group. In addition the school also currently 65 sickness absences affecting both pupils and staff.
Other schools in the borough affected by outbreaks of the Coved-19 virus include Queen’s Park Primary School, with 21 confirmed cases, Rivington Primary School with 14 cases and St Cuthbert’s High School, with 12 cases and Sutton Oak Primary School with 17 cases.
To help try and minimise the impact of the outbreaks, St Helens Borough Council is sending its mobile testing unit to St Augustine school when it re-opens to provide testing support to pupils and staff. Earlier this week the unit also provided support at St Cuthbert’s High School. Further visits to other schools are planned in the coming weeks. Some schools will also have testing kits available to collect from their sites.
In addition the Council is working with each of the affected schools to introduce special measures during the next two weeks to help try and limit the development of further cases on site.
These include:
- Temporarily limiting the number of external activities being undertaken by pupils at the school, such as school educational trips and off campus sports activities.
- In the two high school sites affected, asking pupils to wear face masks in class rooms and communal areas. In the primary schools affected staff will be asked to wear face masks in communal areas. Parents visiting all schools will be asked to wear face masks at all times.
- The introduction of one-way systems in the schools where appropriate.
- Staggered start and end times for lunch break and other break time periods for staff and pupils
- Increased testing for pupils and staff on site
- Regular and enhanced cleaning of access and other touch points on site
Parents, pupils and staff at these schools and all others in the borough are also being asked to ensure they test twice weekly with symptom free lateral flow testing kits.
The latest Coronavirus figures from Public Health England for the week ending September10th showed infection rates at 351 per 100,000, with 634 new cases confirmed. The highest infection rates remain amongst those aged 0 -17.
Councillor Anthony Burns, Cabinet Member for Wellbeing, Culture and Heritage said: “With the new school year starting earlier this month, it is clear that already this is leading to new infections emerging at several schools in the borough so it is important that we take action now to control the spread of the virus further.
“Our priority is to ensure that the disruption to learning for pupils is kept to an absolute minimum so by working with schools currently affected and introducing these measures we hope that we can help prevent further infections and allow school life to continue as normal.
“To help with this we would also ask staff, pupils, parents and their families at all schools in the borough to keep testing twice a week and take extra precautions to stay safe, both on and off the school site.”
Ruth du Plessis, Director of Public Health at St Helens Council, said: “The return to school and the renewed mixing on site is having an impact on infection rates in the borough and it is important that we all work together to ensure that infection rates do not increase further.
“The best way for us to do this is for children, their families and staff at all our schools in the borough to keep testing. To support this our mobile testing unit is already making visits to a number of schools in the borough this and will continue to do this in the weeks to come
“We would also encourage all school staff and eligible pupils to have the Covid-19 vaccination if they can. It not only provides important protection against serious illness from the virus but also makes it harder to pass onto others.”
Any pupils or staff who do test positive for Covid -19 should not go into school and look to book a PCR test as soon as possible to confirm whether you are positive.
In addition to the Mobile Testing Unit, Free PCR testing is available at a number of local test sites. For further details on the sites nearest to you visit www.sthelens.gov.uk/letsgettested
You can also order test kits at https://www.gov.uk/order-coronavirus-rapid-lateral-flow-tests or pick test kits up from a local pharmacy https://maps.test-and-trace.nhs.uk/
