2,227 cases of Covid-19 were reported and investigated since the opening of schools in October, Health Minister Chris Fearne said on Monday.

He was answering a Parliamentary Question by PN MP Stephen Spiteri.

Fearne explained that this number includes all the people who are involved in the education sector. This number therefore is inclusive of all the childcare centers, kindergartens, primary and secondary schools as well as all post secondary entities.

Apart from students and teachers, workers such as clerical staff, cleaners, maintenance workers and also bus drivers are included in this statistic, Fearne said.

Fearne went on to explain that when a case is reported as positive, the iSchools contact tracing team will be notified and immediately communication is made with the liaison officer of the respective school in order to inform them of the decision which was taken. This decision would be made after a proper risk assessment would have taken place.

After this communication is made, the liaison officer then can inform the parents that there was a positive case at the school and that the iSchools contact tracing team will handle the communications for mandatory quarantine.

The time taken for the iSchools contact tracing team to contact the parents of the children concerned is on the day or at most the day after, Fearne confirmed.