Staff ‘more likely to get Covid on coffee break than in classroom’

TEACHERS ARE more likely to get Covid-19 on their coffee break than in a classroom, England’s deputy chief medical officer has said.

Dr Jenny Harries said yesterday that the risk for teachers in schools is probably highest “between staff ”.

Dr Harries also said it would be “unlikely” that there would be a scenario where all schools across the country would be forced to close again.

But in areas subject to a local lockdown there could be individual schools forced to close. She said that no environment is “risk free” but added that the risk to children was higher from seasonal flu compared to the current risks posed by Covid-19.

And she said that a single case in a school “bubble” may not lead to the whole bubble being forced into isolation.

Dr Harries told Sky News: “We think it’s vitally important that school stay open but obviously when it’s safe to do so.

“There will be rare occurrences where we may recommend that a school closes, and that will be related (to) community transmission rates, rather than necessarily from the school itself.

“We think that transmission risks within the school are low, as long as the measures that have been recommended are put in place.

“But where you get rising transmission rates... then obviously we may make an individual recommendation for a school but increasingly that will be very localised. It’s very unlikely that we would see all schools closing down at one go.”