Public health officials have clarified when children should and should not be sent to school during the pandemic, confirming that if a child has a runny nose but is otherwise healthy, they can attend.

September is traditionally a time when children tend to get more colds, as they are once again mixing with their class in an indoor setting, having spent the previous few months often outdoors with usually smaller groups of children.

In the past, many children would have been sent to school with what appeared to be a common cold. However, because of COVID, there is now a lot of confusion among parents, and indeed school staff, about when a child should and should not attend school.

The National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) has now clarified when children should be kept home from school.

Speaking at a NPHET press conference, president of the Irish College of General Practitioners (ICGP), Dr Mary Favier, said that "ideally children should go to school".

"It is really important for their psychological health, their social health and obviously their education and we need to not lose sight of that," she said.

However, she noted that some children "literally have a runny nose every single day of the winter", so what is to be done in such cases?

"If a child is otherwise well and doesn't have any respiratory symptoms and doesn't have a cough, but just constantly sniffles and sneezes the odd time, and is always wiping their nose on their sleeve, they can go to school and they should go to school," she insisted.

However, if the child has "a bit more than that, that's where parents need to start paying attention".

Dr Favier acknowledged that many parents in the past have sent their children to school with slight temperatures if the child "was not too bad". However, the idea of "seeing how they go during the day" is no longer acceptable.

"Any child who has a temperature should not go to school. Any child with a cough should not go to school. Any child that has any symptoms that might suggest COVID, they should stay at home until 48 hours after the symptoms settle," she explained.

Meanwhile, according to acting chief medical officer, Dr Ronan Glynn, evidence from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), along with international experience to date, suggests that children do not commonly transmit COVID-19 to other children or adults in the school setting.

"Internationally, where schools have been reopened, they have not been a significant driver of community transmission. We all have a role to play in keeping this virus at low levels. This is key to protecting our education system over the coming weeks," he said.

However NPHET emphasised that cases of the virus will inevitably occur in schools. When this happens, public health teams will lead the response to limit any further transmission. If there is a concern about your child, you will be informed by these teams.

It was also confirmed that NPHET, the HSE and the National Virus Reference Laboratory (NRVL) are "continuing to assess alternative testing methods for children". Currently, children have to undergo the same procedure as adults - a throat and nasopharyngeal swab.

The nasopharyngeal swab reaches 7cm into the head via the nose.

"We know that children can get multiple respiratory tract infections over the winter period and as a result could require repeated swab tests," noted Dr Cillian DeGascun, director of the NRVL.

For more information about returning to school, click here.