School at centre of Beacon Hospital vaccine controversy suffers Covid outbreak

There has been an outbreak of Covid-19 among staff and students at the school which was at the centre of the vaccine controversy involving the Beacon Hospital.

A number of staff in St Gerard’s school in Bray are self-isolating after a handful of teachers tested positive for coronavirus, while it’s understood there have also been a couple of confirmed cases among students.

The junior and senior schools, which have over 900 staff and students, remain open and classes are continuing as normal.

Principal of the senior school, Tom Geraghty, told the Irish Times that the “wellbeing of those with Covid and their recovery” is the school’s main priority.

Independent.ie has contacted St Gerard’s for comment.

The school was plunged into controversy in March after it was revealed that 20 teachers and staff received vaccines from the Beacon Hospital.

In a letter to parents, the school said it was approached by Beacon chief executive Michael Cullen after vaccines were left over due to double-bookings.

The board of the Beacon Hospital later confirmed that the decision to offer the vaccines “was not in line with the sequencing guidelines in place from the HSE”.

St Gerard’s school board apologised for the school's involvement in the incident and said it would work to “rebuild trust and will ensure that no incident like this can happen again”.

Meanwhile, there was a sharp increase in school outbreaks last week, with 31 outbreaks notified to the Health Protection Surveillance Center (Hpsc).

The Hpsc said it was notified last week of 31 outbreaks, with 83 cases in total, associated with school children and/or staff.

A primary school in Co Offaly has been closed following confirmation of 23 cases of Covid-19.

Scoil Bhríde, which has over 300 pupils, made the decision to close due to the high number of cases.

Public health said it is monitoring the situation closely.

A testing centre has also opened in Nenagh, Co Tipperary after major outbreaks at two of the main schools in the area.

St Joseph’s CBS in Nenagh, Co Tipperary took the decision to close last week after a number of staff and students tested positive for Covid-19.

There are 570 pupils in the school and sixth-year students were offered tests at the start of the week and asked to self-isolate.

St Mary’s secondary school also had a number of confirmed cases.