Secondary students returning to school has led to less infections than expected, expert says

Only 0.05 per cent of coronavirus tests taken by secondary schoolpupils have come back positive, according to official figures.

Secondary school pupils took 2,762,775 lateral flow tests covering a period between March 4-10. However, just 1,324 were positive, The Telegraph reports.

The Department of Health’s figures showed a similar picture when infections among teachers were included.

There were 2,039 positives out of 3,725,655 tests taken in schools - equivalent to 0.06 per cent of tests recording a positive result.

In an analysis of the figures, Prof Jon Deeks - an expert in biostatistics at Birmingham University - found that the number of positive cases among pupils was far lower than the Government had expected.

“The big question is why is that happening? There are two explanations,” Mr Deeks told The Telegraph.

“The first is that this test doesn’t work very well in children and it doesn’t detect the cases. And the other is that asymptomatic infection is much less common in children.

“If the reason is that there aren’t many cases, then this is good news. But if the reason is that the tests are missing cases this is bad news. And if we don’t know - that is very bad news.”

Just 0.05 per cent of tests taken by pupils came back positiveGetty Images

He added that the low infection rate among teachers showed that the Government’s assumptions in planning their back to school policy are “seriously wrong”.

“These figures are much lower than the assumptions that the Government have been using to plan this policy.

“Clearly the Government predictions are seriously wrong.”

It comes as about 89 per cent of secondary school pupils were in class on March 15 – a week after secondary schools began to stagger the return of pupils for mass testing, the Department for Education analysis shows.

Secondary schools were given flexibility to stagger the return of their pupils last week, as these students are being asked to take voluntary Covid-19 tests on site as part of their return to class.

Overall, attendance in state schools steadily increased from 68 per cent on March 8 to 89 per cent on Thursday March 11.