British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has warned that reopening schools in England will adversely impact on infection rates and affect the roadmap for lifting restrictions across the country.
Pubs may not open until April, nightclubs until June, but for millions of frazzled parents across England are eagerly awaiting landmark on the long road back to normal life, when schools reopen their doors to all pupils.
But for Johnson, it is the start of an anxious few weeks as the government’s health experts monitor the impact of the “big bang” reopening on COVID-19 infection rates.
In an open letter in January, the Prime Minister declared himself ‘in awe’ of parents juggling home schooling with jobs and household chores.
That is why No 10 Downing Street made a deliberate decision to put the reopening of school on top its priority list, amid intense pressure from Tory backbenchers concerned about the impact on children’s education and wellbeing, as well as parents’ ability to work.
Mr Johnson has however rejected calls from ministers, including the Education Secretary, Gavin Williamson, to send pupils back after the February half-term and instead set the March 8, 2021 date, three weeks after the top four priority groups had received their first vaccine dose.
Meanwhile, England’s Deputy Chief Medical Adviser, Dr Jenny Harries said infections were still at a rate where a fourth wave could easily commence.
Dr Harries said while pupils returning to classrooms will have an impact on the R rate, schools will be “inherently safer places” due to increased testing.
He told a Downing Street press conference thus; “We do expect there to be an impact on R. What we do know is, or at least we can’t disentangle, the social interaction element of that rise in R. So, it’s just as likely people meeting at school gates, or the different numbers of social interactions, as much as it is in schools.
I think the critical point is there are new interventions, so the testing for schools is in place, starting from now and gradually for some senior pupils going forward.
What that is likely to do is diminish the number of community transmission cases which could come into schools, so schools will be inherently safer places, but equally it will reach back into families.
So although I suspect we may see a rise at the start, with luck as we go forward and people get used to using that testing whole families will be protected as well.
WHO’s top emergency expert, Mike Ryan said on Monday that some countries should have been more cautious when WHO declared a global health emergency in January 2020.
Reuters’ reports indicated that WHO declared a public health emergency of international concern, its “highest level of alarm”, on 30 January and described the coronavirus as a ‘pandemic’ for the first time on March 11, 2020
Asked if the organisation should have used the term “pandemic” sooner, Ryan said: “Maybe we needed to shout louder, but maybe some people need hearing aids.”
