Covid cases in Northumberland schools 'are mostly single cases', say health chiefs

Northumberland County Council's HQ in Morpeth.

At the Thursday, October 1, meeting of the county council’s family and children’s services committee, director of public health Liz Morgan reported that the number of suspected cases in schools has ‘stayed fairly constant’ since the start of term.

“They are mostly single cases, largely in the south-east of the county, with a handful or the odd case in schools out to the west,” she added.

David Street, the authority’s acting deputy director of education, who chairs a special Covid support team for schools, said: “What we are seeing is that schools are a reflection of their local communities in terms of Covid cases, so where we are seeing more cases in the community, it is not a surprise that in the schools those children go to, there may be a slightly higher propensity for there to be a Covid case.

“What we are not seeing is when there’s a positive case, the next day 15 children in that classroom go on to have symptoms and test positive. We are not seeing transmission in schools and classrooms.

“There is the odd case – some sixth formers shared a car to go to school and all ended up with positive cases – but we are not finding transmission in classrooms is widespread at all.

“I think that’s testament to the systems that schools, teachers and support staff are putting in place every day to minimise transmission, but obviously as soon as there is a positive case, there’s a system to follow that the schools are well aware of and which should be minimising any further problems.”

Cath McEvoy-Carr, the executive director of children’s services, said: “This is obviously a very stressful and worrying time for our schools and parents, so we are trying to manage our messages so that schools are getting swift and effective information and support, and ensure that they have access to a range of tools that helps to make those decisions quickly.”

The committee chairman, Cllr Mark Swinburn, claimed that ‘massive media reports and social-media reports’ don’t help, ‘because it generates huge demand on the school’ with parents getting in touch to ask questions.

“It’s a bit of an ask to say can we calm this down and let those who need to deal with this deal with it as they know how,” he said.

Cllr Guy Renner-Thompson, the cabinet member for children’s services, agreed, but added: “We’re never going to stop journalists being journalists, it is what it is.

“What we have done is really ramp up our communications so it’s our message getting out there first.”

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