Children will return to face-to-face lessons in January, a senior minister claimed today amid claims that some schools may remain shut until February.
Communities Minister Robert Jenrick said that classes would restart in person in the first few weeks of January , with teachers overseeing Covid tests for pupils to cut down on disruption.
His comments came amid fears that the mutant coronavirus strain spreads more easily among children.
With cases surging in many parts of the country, Downing Street sources last night said that it was too early to guarantee all pupils would be back in their classrooms by January 11.
â I know not just for the hospitality sector in particular, but also for people who had planned the season, who are looking forward to seeing people over the New Year and that may not now be possible,â he said.
âUnless the numbers stabilise over the next number of days, then we will have to bring forward from the 6th of January the point at which we need to reimpose restrictions.â
He added: âI know thatâs a really hard thing to hear and a really difficult decision for people to take but if we donât do that and wait until January 6th, the restrictions we reimpose might have to be tougher and might have to go on for longer and we donât want that.â
| UPDATED: 22:51, Mon, Dec 14, 2020
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The minister has issued a temporary continuity direction to the Royal Borough of Greenwich. Mr Williamson has said the Government has the power to instruct the council to reopen schools under powers contained within the Coronavirus Act. It comes after Greenwich Council sent a letter to headteachers on Sunday urging them to close schools from Monday evening and move to online learning for the rest of the term, in response to rising coronavirus cases.
In fact, the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) even announced in October that it will suspend data collection for the 2020-2021 flu season due to the ongoing pandemic.
True enough, the agency’s COVIDView, their weekly surveillance of COVID-19 activity in the U.S., is providing more detailed updates than FluView, their weekly influenza surveillance report, despite it being flu season.
But while basic data collection for the flu season is still ongoing, the CDC’s projected suspension raises several concerns. For instance, health authorities could be counting flu cases, which are expected to be lower this year, as COVID-19 cases. Deaths from the flu could be counted alongside those from COVID-19 as well.