Lisa, a mother of three from north Co Dublin, is disappointed that after 18 months of being careful during the Covid-19 pandemic her children are now being confronted with the virus.

Her family is one of thousands in the country who are dealing with a Covid-19 case involving a younger, unvaccinated member of the household since schools reopened.

She does not want to give her real name because she does not want to cause difficulties by identifying her children’s school.

Hospital Report

“We, as a family, have spent the past 18 months doing the right thing trying to protect people. We have followed the rules. We have done everything asked of us. It is just so unexpected and upsetting for it to be our children who get it at this stage,” she said.

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Her nine-year-old daughter went back to school at the end of last month and the following Monday night started to feel unwell with a minor headache.

She was tested for Covid-19 the following day and it came back positive a day later. Lisa is “100 per cent” certain her daughter could only have caught it in school; there are three other cases in her daughter’s class and none of the four children had other cases at home.

Her daughter’s class was not contact traced until three days after she tested positive.

Now one of Lisa’s two sons, both isolating at home since their sister tested positive, has Covid-19 symptoms.

‘Mixed signals’

Lisa is frustrated that there are “mixed signals” from public health doctors in relation to the risks from the more transmissible Delta variant in schools, whether Covid-19 is always a mild illness for children, and whether or not children who are close contacts need to isolate given the risk of spreading it to other people has been lowered because most adults are fully vaccinated.

She is concerned about the risk of children developing long Covid, and she believes that while the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) considers reducing isolation times for children who are close contacts, they need, at a minimum, to update the public health guidance for dealing with the Delta variant in schools.

There should be a role for masks and antigen testing in primary schools, and quicker response times when they are cases, she says.

“We are all in a muddle – you get these public statements which are implying that it is fairly minor for children and we should be able to manage it,” she said.

“Do we need to stop it spreading or don’t we? What is the bottom line? You can see how that is extremely confusing for us in that situation.”