NPHET will consider whether children should wear masks in primary schools when it meets later this morning.
It comes as nearly one in every hundred children tested positive for Covid-19 last week.
5,375 contracted the virus, according to the latest Health Protection Surveillance Centre report – the highest infection rate of any age cohort.
But just 24 outbreaks have been liked to schools — accounting for 139 cases.
Consultant in infectious diseases, Dr Eoghan De Barra, says infection in children is generally mild:
The Junior Education Minister says government’s “determined” to keep schools open.
Josepha Madigan says hundreds of millions of euro has been spent to try and prevent the virus spreading in the classroom.
