Longford school sends pupils home after case of Covid-19 confirmed

Parents of students attending a girls’ secondary school in Longford were asked to collect their children on Thursday following a confirmed case of Covid-19.

Meán Scoil Mhuire, Longford Town, which has over 550 students and 40 staff, will remain closed until October 19th but classes will continue online.

Local Independent councillor Gerry Warnock, who sits on the secondary school’s board of management, said the move was taken as a precaution.

“They are very able to deal with it, they had preempted it,” he said.

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“It was quite likely there would be a scenario like this in a school . . . we are going to have to deal with this for a while, this will probably be a common occurrence over the coming weeks.”

The school will remain closed until October 19th but classes will continue online.

Former pupil and cathaoirleach of Longford Municipal District Peggy Nolan said she was aware parents had been advised to collect their children and expressed full confidence in the swift response of the board of management.

“It’s bad news but this can be expected with kids going back to school,” she said. “It’s my old school and I have every confidence that all the [public health] procedures will be adhered to.”

School management could not be contacted for comment on Thursday evening but according to reports principal Aoife Mulrennan had confirmed that someone within the school had tested positive for Covid-19 and a number of staff had to go into isolation. Classes are due to continue online on Friday.

Local Fine Gael councillor John Browne said the situation was a "huge disappointment".

“Hopefully it will be resolved quickly and it won’t have any undue effects,” he said.

“It’s a big school, it’s a long standing school and there was major refurbishment done to get it ready for the new school term.”