England's Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr Jenny Harries has told a committee of MPs that a regional approach may be taken when deciding how schools in England reopen after the latest coronavirus lockdown.
When asked by MPs on the Education Select Committee whether there could be a regional or phased system for reopening schools after the latest lockdown, Dr Harries said: “I think it’s likely that we will have some sort of regional separation of interventions.”
She said: “So I think on the broad epidemiology it is highly likely that when we come out of this national lockdown we will not have consistent patterns of infection in our communities across the country.
“And therefore, as we had prior to the national lockdown, it may well be possible that we need to have some differential application.”
But Dr Harries said schools will be at the top of the priority to ensure that the balance of education and wellbeing is “right at the forefront” of consideration.
Addressing the committee on the risk of transmission in schools, Dr Harries said: “Schoolchildren definitely can transmit infection in schools – they can transmit it in any environment – but it is not a significant driver as yet, as far as we can see, of large-scale community infections.”
Schools are currently closed to all but the children of key workers as a result of the England-wide lockdown.
Data published by the government showed that half of primary school teachers and school leaders in England were working on-site last week.
Nearly three in five (57 per cent) teaching assistants and other staff were on-site at primary schools on January 13, figures from the Department for Education (DfE) suggest.
Overall, 39 per cent of state school teachers and heads were working on-site last week, according to workforce attendance data for this term.
But the figure was 50 per cent in primary schools and 24 per cent in secondary schools.
