CATTON GROVE PRIMARY SCHOOL
Striving for Excellence
As we move towards opening fully in September this information might prove to be useful in helping to reassure you as to what we are doing and why.
Age remains the number one risk factor. The older you are the greater the risk. In addition, if you have an underlying medical problem or you are part of the BME community you are also at greater risk.
If you are young and your health is good the risk of infection is about 1 in 100000.
In schools, adult to adult infection is much more likely to occur than child to adult or child to child.
Hand washing is really important. Sanitiser/water and soap are equally effective. Sanitiser is used more in NHS and in buildings because it is more convenient.
When cases are suspected or discovered testing quickly is really important.
There may be a second spike in December, or earlier, as infections increase when people huddle together.
1m distancing is considered to be safe.
PPE is not considered to be necessary in a school setting except when children are receiving specific forms of medical attention.
Schools are considered to be a low prevalence setting which means that it is highly unlikely that the virus could be picked up on clothes. The advantage of wearing school uniform is that it can be set aside at the end of the day – the virus decays significantly over a 24-hour period. Washing clothes every day is therefore not necessary.
Cleaning classrooms needs to be practical. Cleaning once is better than nothing. Three to four times a day (eg light switches) is plenty. Children should not become anxious about cleaning too much. They should be taught that surfaces can transfer infection and they should be encouraged to monitor the environment and keep it tidy.
The virus doesn’t like being outdoors. It is quickly degraded by sunlight and the wind disperses it. Being outdoors as much as possible is good.
The future? If a vaccine is developed how long will it give immunity for? The thinking is that just enough is needed in the population so it doesn't transfer across different groups. If there is no vaccine, the thinking is that the virus will degrade for example to a common cold over years.
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