Face masks back as additional measures brought in to reduce Covid-19 transmission in Suffolk schools
Face masks and restrictions on visitors are to be reintroduced to Suffolk schools to help slow the current rate of transmission in education settings.
SCC are advising that the following measures be implemented from the 1 November 2021.
- Staff in all education settings (primary, secondary, and higher education) to wear face coverings in communal areas outside of the classroom, unless exempt for medical reasons.
- Students in all secondary and higher education settings to wear face coverings in communal areas outside of the classroom, unless exempt for medical reasons.
- All education settings to restrict entry to their site to essential visitors only.
- Any visitors to wear a face covering while on-site, this includes adults collecting children in the playground.
The number of cases within children and young people aged 10-14 has increased by almost 15% and cases amongst 15–19-year-olds has increased by 32% in the past week of data. This means that in October alone school children in Suffolk have lost 26,264 days of education due to positive cases of Covid-19.
These measures will be reviewed during the week commencing Monday 15 November 2021.
Read more on the Suffolk County Council website.
Fourteen schools in Suffolk have Covid measures in place
On October 6, Suffolk County Council introduced a new sibling policy, which advised children and young people aged between 4 and 18 years to stay at home when a sibling they live with tests positive for COVID-19. This applies to schools with an outbreak of Covid-19 and is still in place.
This measure is currently in place in 14 of the county’s schools and education settings including:
- Kesgrave High School
- East Bergholt High School
- Breckland School
- East Point Academy
- St Mary’s School (Hadleigh)
- Northgate High School
- Occold Primary School
- Thurston Community College
- St Johns CoE Primary School (Ipswich)
- St Albans Catholic High School
- Ormiston Endeavour
- Halifax Primary School
- Castle Manor Acadmy
- Samuel Ward Academy
Immunosuppressed in Waveney urged to get their third vaccine as soon as possible
Immunosuppressed people in Waveney are being contacted directly to come forward for their planned third primary dose of COVID-19 vaccine.
The Joint Committee for Vaccinations & Immunisations (JCVI) has recommended that people who were severely immunosuppressed at the time of their first or second vaccination should be offered a third dose eight weeks after their second.
This is an extra ‘top-up’ dose in response to evidence showing that they may not have responded as well to the vaccine as others and will therefore have lower levels of protection against COVID-19. It includes people with leukaemia and advanced HIV and people who have had recent organ transplants.
The primary third dose for this group of patients is different to the six month booster being now offered to people aged 50+, health and care workers and those who are clinically extremely vulnerable.
Learn more on the CCG’s website.
Ask the Expert event – vaccinating 12-15s
Suffolk and north east Essex ICS held their latest Ask the Expert event on 12 October, they worked with schools across Suffolk.
The Q&A session aimed to answer questions and address concerns about the Covid vaccine that local12-15 year olds and their parents raised.
You can watch this session and previous sessions on the SNEE website.
Testing site opening hours are changing
All Local Covid testing and Regional testing sites in England are reducing their opening hours. From 1 November, operational times across all testing sites in England will change to an opening time of 8am and a closing of 6pm. This is a shortening from the previous times of 8am – 8pm.
UK Cases
As of 4:00pm on 20 October: 8,589,737 people have tested positive for COVID-19 in the UK (pillar 1 and pillar 2 testing). Of those who tested positive for COVID-19 in the UK, 139,031 have died (within 28 days of positive test) across all settings. You can view the latest UK dashboard and cases by local authority here.
Current UK Alert Level: 3
On Monday May 20, following advice from the Joint Biosecurity Centre and in the light of the most recent data, the four UK Chief Medical Officers and NHS England National Medical Director agreed that the UK alert level should move from level 4 to level 3 in all nations.
On July 19, 2021 England moved to Step 4 of the roadmap which saw further restrictions lifted and removed from law.
‘Let’s Keep Life Moving’ encourages the public to continue with simple actions to continue to help reduce the spread of COVID-19, and protect those around us.