No school transmissions of COVID-19 among students

During her weekly COVID-19 bulletin, Professor Charmaine Gauci said that there has been no major spread among schools.

Profs Gauci noted that there have been cases of staff-to-staff transmission among schools. These are included in workplace clusters figures. There is yet to be any transmission between students in primary and secondary schools.

“There have been a number of positive cases among staff – schools are also a workplace, and those workplace clusters include cases of staff in schools. However, we had situations of clusters relating to school staff. We’ve had very little cases in childcare centres, where there was transmission among children, but until now in primary and secondary schools we haven’t had transmission between students.”

Profs Gauci extended her appeal to parents, insisting that they should not force their children to attend school if they feel unwell. “You know your children - if you see that they are looking a bit different from usual, or you check their temperature and you see that they are unwell, don’t send them to school. If you send your child to school ill, you will end up making other students sick, especially in younger age groups."

“Schools have done their best to provide the safest environment possible, but this depends on a lot of people. It depends firstly not just on the environment but on those working in schools, including all staff that are also taking protection measures. If one of them starts to feel unwell, it is important that they don’t attend school.”

Profs Gauci further warned against having gatherings of people together, especially over the coming Halloween weekend. “During Halloween children would traditionally go around households, but we can’t have that this year. We have already put forward advice on how people, old and young, can celebrate Halloween. However, we can’t have parties together, and we can’t have people knocking on doors and meeting with others since that involves exposing others to risk,” she said.

Malta saw its first decrease in total active cases today, with 76 new cases and 110 overnight recoveries. There have been 61 COVID-10 related deaths so far, the latest victim announced this morning.  There are currently 12 patients being treated in Mater Dei’s ITU, and another 12 being held at the Infectious Diseases Unit.