Covid: Merthyr school shut after 'worrying' Delta variant case

Earlier this year, Merthyr Tydfil had the highest Covid rate in the UK, but the situation has now improved

Children at a primary school in Merthyr Tydfil have been told to stay home for another week after a visitor tested positive for a variant of Covid-19.

Goetre Primary School, on the Gurnos, will remain closed for "precautionary measures".

It comes after a visitor attending the school on a teacher training day before half term tested positive for the Delta variant.

Council leader Lisa Mytton said pupils' safety "must come first".

Local member of the Senedd Dawn Bowden, said the confirmed case was "worrying" as it was the first time the Delta variant had been confirmed in the county, which now has the joint lowest Covid rates in Wales.

'Precautionary measure'

A new testing centre has opened near the school, with people being urged to attend if they feel ill, in a bid to stop the spread of the variant in the community.

In a statement, the council confirmed no pupils were in the school on Friday, 28 May, when the visitor arrived for a teacher training day before the half-term break.

All staff have been told to self-isolate until Friday, 11 June "as a precaution" and the school has been deep cleaned.

With the school remaining closed until Monday 14 June, it means more than 400 nursery and primary pupils will have to stay at home for a second week following the half-term break.

Ms Mytton said the council, public health bodies and Cwm Taf Morgannwg Health Board had worked quickly to try to stop the spread of the virus.

She said the closure of the school was "not an easy decision, especially with schools being closed so much during the past 12 months". 

"However, the safety of our young people and staff will always come first," she said.

'A warning that this isn't over'

Local Member of the Senedd Dawn Bowden said people had been forced to make really hard choices in the community, which has high deprivation rates

Just before Christmas, Merthyr Tydfil had the highest Covid case rates in the whole of the UK, with the county recording 1,349 cases per 100,000 people in seven days.

Now the county has turned this around and it has the lowest case rate in Wales - joint with Anglesey, with 1.7 per 100,000 people.

• Hope but not complacency' after Merthyr cases fall

• Covid in Wales: What do the stats tell us?

Ms Bowden said she was hopeful the case could be contained and it would not lead to cases increasing in the community.

"We've been doing really well in Merthyr, we had the worst case incident in the UK, we have gone to being one of the best," she said.

However she said with the Delta variant, which originated in India, now being the dominant strain in Wales, it was vital people kept following social distancing rules.

A total of 97 cases of the India variant of concern have been detected so far in Wales, up 67% compared with the previous week, with easing of indoor lockdown restrictions delayed over concerns about its spread.

"We haven't seen the Delta variant here until now, so like everywhere else we have got to do everything we can to make sure this new variant does not get a grip in our communities...which so far it hasn't," Ms Bowden said.