The measures taken by a school which sent more than 190 children home after two positive cases were identified were "absolutely appropriate and correct", Wiltshire's public health boss has said.

On Friday (March 12), two Year 8 pupils at The Stonehenge School in Amesbury tested positive for Covid-19 during rapid testing.

Following a risk assessment, the entire bubble, totalling 192 students, was asked to self-isolate at home for 10 days.

At that point Year 8 pupils had only been back in school for three days.

The decision to send more than 190 children home after just two cases were found has been criticised by some parents who branded it "crazy" and "disruptive".

But Wiltshire Council's director for public health said it was the result of a "thorough" risk assessment.

'Not an overreaction'

Asked whether the decision was an overreaction, Kate Blackburn said: "Absolutely not.

"Every positive case in an educational setting is thoroughly risk assessed by the public health team, by the local school, by PHE to make sure that we're not putting any children at risk of onward transmission.

"When you've got two children testing positive in a school it can be very different in every different educational setting.

"You have to think about the number of break times, lunch times, different classes that were happening so each time a positive case is identified, that risk assessment is done thoroughly between the school and the public health team to ensure that those children are safe from onward transmission so the actions that were taken last week were absolutely appropriate and correct."

Confirmatory PCR test

The pupils who tested positive for the virus through the lateral flow test have been advised to order a PCR test if they develop symptoms.

This has also raised eyebrows among those questioning why students weren't told to take a more reliable PCR test anyway, which, if negative, would allow them to return to school earlier.

However, that's because, as it stands, the result of a lateral flow test taken in a supervised testing site "is taken as the correct result".

Mrs Blackburn explained: "At the moment it is national policy that if a lateral flow test is used in a school site, in an asymptomatic testing site where it's supervised testing, the individual does not go on for a PCR confirmatory test.

"That was a change in policy that was brought in in January when we had very high rates of community transmission.

"We do know that some people have gone for confirmatory PCR after they've had a positive lateral flow test and the results can be different but at the moment we are bound by national policy."

Once children take their tests on their own in their own home, they will be required to go for a confirmatory PCR test, Mrs Blackburn clarified.

Last week, when all schools in England reopened to all pupils, 10 settings including colleges, secondary and independent schools in the Wiltshire Council area identified cases through asymptomatic testing.

Two of them were in Salisbury. However, only the close contacts of those who tested positive were required to self-isolate.

The council has not revealed which schools were affected.

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