Sir, – Schools are now effectively the only places where hundreds of people can meet indoors and where normal social distancing is not mandated. It is one metre “where possible”, which is not as often as it should be. The close-contact time definition (15 minutes) is similarly redundant in a school setting.
As a consequence, in one key aspect, the reopening of schools is therefore like the large “parties” we have seen take place in Kilkee, Killarney and beyond – lots of young people assembled while ignoring current Covid regulations. Two of the main differences between reopened schools and these parties concerns the setting (indoor versus outdoors) and how we judge them (safe versus reckless).
To make these outdoor parties more “acceptable” we should treat them like schools – hold them indoors, say they are safe and get teachers to supervise them! – Yours, etc,
SEAN KEAVENY,
Castleknock,
Dublin 15.