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Latest Coronavirus News (16/3/20)

 

 

  • Updated guidance for education settings on coronavirus (COVID-19)

    Today, the Department for Education and Public Health England have issued updated guidance for education settings on COVID-19. This guidance will assist staff in addressing COVID-19 in educational settings. This includes childcare, schools, further and higher educational institutions.

    What you need to know:

    • staff, young people and children should stay at home if they are unwell with a new, continuous cough or a high temperature to avoid spreading infection to others. Otherwise they should attend education or work as normal
    • if staff, young people or children become unwell on site with a new, continuous cough or a high temperature they should be sent home
    • clean and disinfect regularly touched objects and surfaces more often than usual using your standard cleaning products
    • supervise young children to ensure they wash their hands for 20 seconds more often than usual with soap and water or hand sanitiser and catch coughs and sneezes in tissues

    The updated guidance can be found here:

    Current advice remains in place: no education or children’s social care setting should close in response to a suspected or confirmed COVID-19 case unless advised to do so by Public Health England.

    The Chief Medical Officer has advised that the impact of closing schools on both children’s education and on the workforce would be substantial, but the benefit to public health may not be. Decisions on future advice to education or children’s social care settings will be taken based on the latest and best scientific evidence, which at this stage suggests children are a lower risk group.

    Recording school pupil absences

    Where a pupil is in self-isolation, in accordance with latest information and advice from Department of Health and Social Care and Public Health England, the pupil should be recorded as unable to attend due to exceptional circumstances in the attendance register. Code Y (Unable to attend due to exceptional circumstances) should be used in this instance.

    If a pupil does not attend school, despite the school operating as usual and the pupil is not self-isolating, they should be marked as absent. It is for headteachers to determine whether or not the absence is authorised depending on the individual circumstances.

    Where a pupil cannot attend school due to illness, as normally would happen, the pupil should be recorded as absent in the attendance register and the school will authorise the absence. Code I (Illness) should be used in this instance.

    Handwashing advice

    The most important thing individuals can do to protect themselves is to wash their hands more often, for at least 20 seconds, with soap and water. Public Health England recommends that in addition to handwashing before eating, and after coughing and sneezing, everyone should also wash hands after using toilets and travelling on public transport.

    Watch this short NHS film for guidance:

    Department for Education coronavirus helpline

    The Department for Education coronavirus helpline is available to answer questions about COVID-19 relating to education and children’s social care. Staff, parents and young people can contact this helpline as follows:

    Phone: 0800 046 8687
    Opening hours: 8am to 6pm (Monday to Friday), 10am to 4pm (Saturday to Sunday)

    Please note, we are currently experiencing high volumes of calls. We appreciate your patience at this time and apologise for any wait that you may experience. To ensure that we answer your calls as quickly as possible we have now extended our opening hours to cover weekends.

    If you work in a school, please have your unique reference number (URN or UK PRN) available when calling the hotline.

    Where to find the latest information

    Updates on COVID-19:

    Guidance for educational settings:

    Guidance for social or community care and residential settings:

    Travel advice for those travelling and living overseas:

    Educational resources:

    Latest Department for Education information:

     

Advice for those who have travelled recently

Yesterday, the Chief Medical Advisor for England, Chris Whitty updated advice for travellers returning to the UK from specific areas affected by COVID-19, which you can find at:

https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus

Please share this guidance with your staff and cascade as appropriate.

If you have returned from the following specific areas since 19th February, you should call NHS 111 and stay indoors and avoid contact with other people even if you do not have symptoms:

  • Iran
  • Specific lockdown areas in Northern Italy (see link to maps below)
  • Special care zones in South Korea (see link to maps below)
  • Hubei province (returned in the past 14 days – see link to maps below)

If you have returned from the following areas since 19 February and develop symptoms, however mild, you should stay indoors at home and avoid contact with other people immediately and call NHS 111:

  • Northern Italy (defined by a line above, and not including, Pisa, Florence and Rimini – see link to maps below)
  • Vietnam
  • Cambodia
  • Laos
  • Myanmar

If you have a cough, or fever or shortness of breath and have visited any of the following areas in the last 14 days, stay indoors and call NHS 111 informing them of your recent travel:

  • China, apart from Hubei province (see link to maps below)
  • Thailand
  • Japan
  • Republic of Korea, apart from special care zones (see link to maps below)
  • Hong Kong
  • Taiwan
  • Singapore
  • Malaysia
  • Macau

Maps showing affected regions of China, Republic of Korea and Italy

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-specified-countries-and-areas

Advice for those who have travelled recently in a group, such as a school trip

There is no need to manage returning groups any differently. Pupils, students and staff returning from trips to the countries specified above should follow the same advice.

Where to find the latest information

Public Health England blog:
https://publichealthmatters.blog.gov.uk/2020/01/23/wuhan-novel-coronavirus-what-you-need-to-know/

Guidance for educational settings
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-to-educational-settings-about-covid-19

 

  1. Coronavirus (COVID-19) - Guidance and Advice March 2020
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