It is of "minimal benefit" to exclude asymptomatic children from school or to require them to be tested for Covid-19, the Chair of the Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group has said.
On RTÉ's News at One, Professor Philip Nolan said that the risks of allowing asymptomatic children to continue their schooling are very low and the benefits of uninterrupted schooling are "quite significant". "A case in school might infect somewhere between 2% and 5% of its close contacts, whereas the same case in a household setting is typically infecting somewhere between 30% and 50% of its unvaccinated close contacts, so the risks in the household and the risks in the school are completely different," Prof Nolan said. "The risk is really quite low