Education Minister Dr Alex Allinson has defended the government’s handling of the current Covid-19 outbreak and the delay in closing schools.

But he has admitted that the past two weeks have been toughest of the whole pandemic.

He was called upon to give a statement at this week’s remote sitting of Tynwald to explain why schools were allowed to open on Monday, March 1, despite concerns of unexplained cases in the community - and the failure to close all schools immediately on the Tuesday after a positive case in a pupil was confirmed.

Year eight pupils (aged 12 and 13) at St Ninian’s High School were told to stay away on Tuesday, but all other schools were open - including the rest of lower school at Bemahague - only for a lockdown to be announced at about 10am that day.

In Tynwald, Julie Edge (Onchan) wanted to know whether he would ’consider his position’ as education minister in the light of those decisions.

Dr Allinson later told the Manx Independent the two weeks following the half-term break had been ’the most challenging so far’ during the pandemic.

Referring to Ms Edge’s questions, he said: ’I have considered my position as Minister and constantly question the decisions I am asked to make to ensure they are made for the right reasons and on the background of all the information available at that time.

’I remain committed to doing everything I can within government to protect our community, preserve our education service, support teachers, pupils and their families and ensure that we can emerge from the current lockdown safely.’

At the Tynwald sitting, Dr Allinson said none of the decisions about schools were taken lightly and outlined the build-up to the last week’s lockdown.

After it was confirmed on February 11 that a Steam Packet worker based in the UK had tested positive, schools closed for half term as normal, breaking up at the end of the school day on February 12.

It was February 18 when it was made public that an Isle of Man-based Steam Packet worker had tested positive.

’Extensive contact tracing identified further contacts across a number of households including some school-aged children who were asymptomatic but had attended a range of community events,’ said Dr Allinson.

’One child of a household with a confirmed positive case was also found to be infected and contact tracing identified three close contacts of school age who had attended the Rock Project and who later tested positive.’

The first recorded case of a pupil at Ballakermeen High School pupil was confirmed on February 17, he said. Ten high risk contacts were traced, all of whom tested negative. The public was informed on February 19 that Ballakermeen School on February 12 - and the no 31 bus serving it - was a low risk location.

Public Health advice was that it remained a low risk of onward transmission and schools reopened on February 22.

Testing of an out of hours worker at St Ninian’s Lower School (Bemahague) found them positive on the evening of February 26.

There was no obvious link to the previous cluster. With two cases then believed to be community transmission on Saturday, February 27, the government called on the public to cancel events that day while the cases were investigated further

But the next day, with no new cases, the government said business could return to normal and the schools open on March 1 - but urged vigilance.

On that Monday evening a pupil at Bemahague tested positive - with no link to any previous case. Late that night the message was put out to year eight pupils and their families to isolate.

Council of Ministers subsequently decided to start a 21-day circuit breaker lockdown from midnight on Tuesday - a decision announced on Tuesday morning after the schools had opened again.

On Tuesday, a positive case was discovered in a year seven pupil and that year group and their families were also asked to isolate.

Positive cases at Ballasalla School subsequently led to years two, three and four self-and some members isolating, with the school closing as a hub on Wednesday.

More positive cases from other schools led to the drastic decision to also close hub school provision for key workers from Friday last week.

As the Manx Independent press education and health chiefs were still working on setting up a heavily restricted hub school for children of critical workers.

Ms Edge was highly critical of Dr Allinson.

’You opened the schools on March 1 and then seemed surprised that you had a positive case in Year 8. You had then only closed down one year group,’ she said.

’Have you ever been in a school and seen how close these children all get?

’You put the vulnerable at risk on March 1.

’We have a serious outbreak in our young, our most vulnerable and I do want to know who made the decision to open those schools on March 1.’

Dr Allinson insisted the decision to allow schools to open on March 1 was a collective one by CoMin based on evidence from the contact tracing team and public health.