COVID-19 statistics for pupils and teachers (FOI)

Request

A

By week, since the start of the COVID pandemic in March 2020, how many school age pupils (0-4, 5-11, 12-16, 17-18) and teachers (by setting) have been hospitalised with COVID-19 symptoms. 

B

By week, since the start of the COVID pandemic in March 2020, how many school age pupils (0-4, 5-11, 12-16, 17-18) and teachers (by setting) have died with COVID-19 symptoms. 

C

By week, since the start of the COVID pandemic in March 2020, how many school age pupils (0-4, 5-11, 12-16, 17-18) and teachers (by setting) have been diagnosed with Long-COVID. 

Response

A  

Information for school age pupils up to 25 August 2021 is publicly available on www.gov.je in response to a previous Freedom of Information request, which relates to COVID-19 statistics for children and teaching staff, dated 23 September 2021. As the information is accessible by other means, Article 23 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 applies.

COVID-19 statistics for children and teaching staff (FOI)

Since 25 August 2021, fewer than five patients aged 18 or under have been hospitalised with COVID-19. Due to the small number of cases, disclosure control has been applied to avoid breaching the privacy of individuals involved. Article 25 (personal information) of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 applies. 

In regard to teachers, hospital admissions data does not record the occupation of patients. Therefore, this information is not held as per Article 3 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011. 

B

To date, no COVID-19 related deaths have been registered of any school age children (ie 0-18 years). Information relating to the occupation of a deceased person is not required to be provided by next of kin under the law for the purposes of registering a death in Jersey. 

C 

Information about long Covid-19 is publicly available on www.gov.je in STAC minutes:

It is not possible to provide long Covid-19 data based on age group. This is because information on long Covid-19 diagnoses made by GPs is recorded on the centralised system (EMIS). All data extracted from the GP clinical system is bound by strict information governance, consent and data sharing agreements. Whilst the Government of Jersey may be able to interrogate the EMIS system for information, this information is not routinely collated outside of 12 conditions recorded under the Jersey Quality Improvement Framework (JQIF). The search functionality for EMIS is complex, and because the data is input by numerous different, private practices it is difficult to be confident of data standards, and search results can be misleading. That is why, with the exception of the JQIF datasets, the Government does not routinely compile or report on EMIS data.

It should also be noted that the EMIS system is information held by the GPs rather than by the Government. Whilst the Government can review this data it is not held by them for the purposes of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011.

Articles applied

Article 3 - Meaning of “information held by a public authority”

For the purposes of this Law, information is held by a public authority if –

(a) it is held by the authority, otherwise than on behalf of another person; or

(b) it is held by another person on behalf of the authority.

Article 23 - Information accessible to applicant by other means

Information is absolutely exempt information if it is reasonably available to the applicant, otherwise than under this Law, whether or not free of charge.

A scheduled public authority that refuses an application for information on this ground must make reasonable efforts to inform the applicant where the applicant may obtain the information.

Article 25 - Personal information

(1) Information is absolutely exempt information if it constitutes personal data of which the applicant is the data subject as defined in the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2005.

(2) Information is absolutely exempt information if –

(a) it constitutes personal data of which the applicant is not the data subject as defined in the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2018; and

(b) its supply to a member of the public would contravene any of the data protection principles, as defined in that Law.

(3) In determining for the purposes of this Article whether the lawfulness principle in Article 8(1)(a) of the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2018 would be contravened by the disclosure of information, paragraph 5(1) of Schedule 2 to that Law (legitimate interests) is to be read as if sub-paragraph (b) (which disapplies the provision where the controller is a public authority) were omitted.