A professor of immunology at Dublin City University has said it would be sensible to close schools on Friday to give the best chance of limiting the spread of Covid-19 and to ensure schools reopen in January.
Speaking on RTÉ's Today with Claire Byrne, Professor Christine Loscher said that if schools closed at the end of this week it would allow for a longer 'circuit breaker' ahead of Christmas when inter-generational mixing will occur.
A joined-up decision is needed on the issue as "the last thing we want to do is worry about opening schools" in January, she said.
Prof Loscher said that schools have the highest number of unvaccinated people mixing when there is concern about a new highly transmissible variant of the virus and this does not