A DERRY GP says it would be a “big ask” to reopen secondary schools in the North of Ireland on Monday, March 8.
But Dr Tom Black said he was hopeful primary schools could reopen then.
The executive has agreed that schools in Northern Ireland will remain closed until 8 March at the earliest.
Earlier in February a teaching union said a full return to school “may not be possible for some time”
Dr Black, who is the chairman of the British Medical Association (BMA) here, said the reopening of primary schools was more likely because “we know the transmission infection in younger children is much lower”.
He said: “The chief medical officer and the Department of Health will look carefully at data and look at the R number – which is 0.8 at the moment.
“Opening schools has an increase of between 0.3 and 0.6 in the R number, so we couldn’t do that at the moment.
“Maybe in March, primary schools to open and see what effect it has.
“We really want the schools open before anything else, but secondary schools might be a reach at the moment.”
On Sunday, the Department of Health said another 11 people had died with Covid-19 in Northern Ireland and a further 176 had tested positive.
There are 476 inpatients with coronavirus in Northern Ireland’s hospitals, of whom 58 are in intensive care units.
Stormont ministers will meet this Thursday, February 18, to discuss whether to extend the current lockdown beyond March 5 or begin the process of lifting restrictions from then.
Dr Black added that everybody was “fatigued” and “fed up” with lockdown but that restrictions must be eased gradually to avoid a further spike in cases.
Derry GP Dr Tom Black
“This hopefully will be our last lockdown so let’s do it properly.
“It’s small steps, it’s increments. Let’s see what we can get away with, let’s see what affects the R number, let’s see what affects the transmission of infections.
“We are in a good place with vaccines but we are still in a bad place in terms of the number of infections and the number of patients in hospital.”
As of February 11, 373,414 people in the North of Ireland had received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine.
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