Positive COVID-19 cases recorded in schools (FOI)

Request

I would like the daily totals reported by each school in the Autumn Term for positive cases of Covid-19, in order to compare to the official government website. A parent suggested that there 10 cases at their school when less was reported and I wish to check that government have not underreported cases.

In their weekly summary document there is a mismatch with the daily data that they publish and underreported summaries have occurred on weeks ending 19 November, 26 November, 3 December and 10 December (Data for week ending 17 December not yet available).

A 

The only way to compare them is to compare this with the school data shared with staff and / or parents. Ideally I would like this in pdf and in excel.

B 

If possible, I would like added whether any of these cases resulted in hospitalisation or medical reports of symptoms of long Covid.

Response

A

Please see attached Excel spreadsheet and PDF of daily positive cases by school for the weeks where a mismatch was indicated.

School positive cases (excel)

School positive cases (pdf)

Please note that daily confirmed new cases are taken from testing data each morning. This data is analysed and reported to CYPES by the close of business each day. CYPES update the figures on this page the following working day.

There will be timing differences between the two datasets, where some cases could be included in the overall COVID-19 numbers on one day and included in the cases communicated to schools the next day, which can result in a mismatch of data. Please also note that the reporting on the Government website is total new cases reported in schools, not how many cases there are on a specific day. For further information please see the following link:

School COVID-19 statistics (gov.je)

B

To answer the request, the data would need to be extracted from various sources and manipulated. Schools do not hold hospital records or long Covid data (which is held by GPs rather than government), and hospitals do not record which school a patient attends.

The Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 does not require a Scheduled Public Authority to manipulate data in order to provide a response. Article 16 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has therefore been applied.

Article applied

Article 16 - A scheduled public authority may refuse to supply information if cost excessive

(1) A scheduled public authority that has been requested to supply information may refuse to supply the information if it estimates that the cost of doing so would exceed an amount determined in the manner prescribed by Regulations.