Twelve children and eight staff at a creche in Co Offaly have contracted Covid-19 with the outbreak prompting calls for swifter vaccination for those working in childcare facilities.
As the Irish Examiner reports, the Federation of Early Childhood Providers said it had been in contact with management at the M&A's facility in Tullamore, who said they had followed all guidelines.
The creche cares for 64 children and up until recent days had not experienced any difficulties.
However, the outbreak has resulted in at least 20 cases, in a county that currently has the highest incidence rate of Covid-19 in the country.
Elaine Dunne, Chairperson and founder of The Federation of Early Childhood Providers, said management at the facility had followed all guidelines, and it now increased the pressure on government to move childcare workers up the priority list for vaccination and in the meantime to pay for antigen testing.
“This is telling us that yet again government has failed to protect the childcare sector," Ms Dunne said.
Heightened transmissibility
“We are asking yet again for vaccination [priority] and antigen test - all have been denied. We can't accept that any more.
“We cannot accept that we are not going to be protected by government.”
She said contact tracing needed to be more rigorous, particularly in light of the heightened transmissibility of new strains of the virus, and that a short-term measure would be financial support for antigen testing, which she said was in use across Europe.
“We are frontline workers, and we need to be treated as such," she said.
Ms Dunne said the Federation operates a Covid Support Advisory Group for childcare providers and that since the weekend it has been "inundated" with contacts. She also said she was aware of other outbreaks at other childcare facilities elsewhere in the country.
"The government cannot allow the childcare sector to close down because if we do there is no childcare for the frontline workers - we are front lining for the economy and that cannot be ignored," she added.
