The third scholastic year during the COVID-19 pandemic is now underway yet details on contact tracing procedures in schools remain scant. 

The authorities have repeatedly said specialised teams, made up of trained staff from both the health and education departments, are responsible for contact tracing though they have provided no additional information. 

According to the guidelines published ahead of the start of school, the authorities seem to have opted to follow protocols issued by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) in a technical report published in July. 

Times of Malta has analysed this report to better understand the protocols in place. 

A student has tested positive for COVID-19… what now?

While failing to outline the contact tracing procedures, the health authorities’ document does go into some detail on who needs to be contacted when a student is confirmed positive for the virus.

The document states that, as soon as the positive result is received, the student’s parent or guardian must immediately inform the school. The liaison officer, which every school must have to ensure COVID  measures are adhered to, is also alerted at this point, usually by the public health teams and the school. 

The public health school contact tracing teams then kick off a process of informing those deemed to be in close contact with the infected individual.

Contact tracing should be initiated “promptly following the identification of a confirmed case” and should include contacts in the school (classmates, teachers and other staff), household and other relevant settings, the ECDC said. 

The first step involves establishing whether an individual has had high-risk exposure that would mean being classified as a close contact of the infected person. 

Others would be classified as having had low exposure. 

An individual is considered a close contact if there was face-to-face contact with a COVID case within two metres for more than 15 minutes over a 24-hour period (even if not consecutive); physical contact with a COVID case or unprotected direct contact with infectious secretions from a COVID case. The latter happens when a person is, for instance, coughed on by an infected person. 

Being in a closed environment, be it a house, classroom, meeting room or a hospital waiting room, with a COVID case for more than 15 minutes is also considered high-risk exposure, as is travelling for more than 15 minutes using “any mode of transport”.

A person’s exposure is deemed low risk if the contact time with the infected person, in any scenario, is less than 15 minutes. But, despite sitting in a classroom with an infected case being deemed high risk, it is unlikely that entire groups will be ordered to quarantine if one child tests positive for the virus. 

According to the ECDC report, while sharing a classroom can be considered a high-risk exposure, “the presence of effective mitigation measures that would lower the risk of some children can be taken into account”.

With mask-wearing and social distancing mandatory in Malta’s schools, it is likely not all students will have to quarantine if just one case of infection is detected.

A decision on who should go into quarantine will be taken on a case-by-case basis by the health and education authorities, with proximity to the infected cases and mitigation measures taken into consideration. 

Those students, educators and the rest of their households can benefit from early release from quarantine if they are fully vaccinated. If not, they must stay home for 14 days. The rule also applies to anyone living in the same household as the person identified as a close contact. 

What about the younger students in class?

Malta’s youngest pupils – those in kindergarten and childcare centres – have been exempted from wearing face masks and, although encouraged, social distancing is not mandatory. 

This means that, based on the ECDC guidelines, these students are more likely to be made to quarantine if one case is detected since they would have been in a closed environment without mitigation measures. 

What is considered to be an outbreak?

The local health authorities had often said last year there were no major outbreaks in schools but what does this actually mean?

According to the ECDC, an outbreak in a school setting is defined as “two or more PCR-confirmed cases occurring at a school during a 14-day period where transmission is not known to have occurred outside of the school”. 

An outbreak continues until 14 days have passed without detecting any additional cases.

“Further restricting movement or contact between class groups and limiting student activities to their classroom cohorts may also be considered,” the ECDC report said, in case an outbreak is detected.