THE concerns of a Donegal teacher working in a region of the county with high levels of Covid-19 have been brought before Ireland’s Acting Chief Medical Officer.
Yesterday’s Department of Health press briefing heard from a post-primary teacher in Donegal who contacted media about the “shocking treatment” of school communities during the pandemic.
The teacher told Virgin Media News that teachers are not deemed as close contacts of students or staff members. They added that school staff or students are not being alerted to positive Covid-19 cases in the community due to GDPR.
The school community has been hit with high levels of anxiety and stress as the virus spreads in the locality, it was claimed.
“Anyone who is a close contact will be identified as a close contact,” Dr Glynn said.
Dr Glynn also addressed concerns raised by teachers who are unable to reduce their contacts due to work.
He said: “The reality is we are asking everyone else across society to reduce their contacts so that you can continue to teach the children, so that healthcare workers can continue to provide healthcare services. As a society, this pandemic is making us make difficult choices and we’ve got to be clear about what our priorities are.
“We have been clear, we need to continue to provide healthcare, we need to continue to teach and make sure that our children get educated and all of the extra curricular elements to a school environment that are so important for our children. And we need to do all that we can to protect those that are vulnerable in our families and communities.”
