School staff at ‘no greater risk’ of infection than working-age adults

SCHOOL staff are not at a higher risk of Covid-19 infection than other working-age adults in their local communities, new figures suggest.

Around 14.99% of school staff tested positive for coronavirus antibodies in December, which indicate a past infection, lower than the estimate of 18.22% for workingage adults, according to a small study of schools.

The survey from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) also suggests the proportion of staff who tested positive for Covid-19 antibodies was 14.61% of primary staff, compared with 15.72% of secondary staff.

The findings come a week before all pupils in England are set to return to class after months of remote learning.

School leaders and teachers have been left “disappointed” after Government advisers decided against prioritising school staff in “crowded” classrooms in the next phase of the Covid-19 vaccine rollout.

But a leading Public Health England (PHE) expert said that the country is now in a “much better place” to reopen schools to children during the pandemic.

Dr Shamez Ladhani, a PHE consultant epidemiologist and the study’s chief investigator, said it was “extremely reassuring” that teachers do not appear to be at a higher risk of infection than working people of the same age.

Dr Ladhani said: “I think where we are now is in a really amazing place for reopening schools the right way.”

“The country is still in lockdown, the infection rates are falling very, very rapidly, community infection and transmissions are going to be very low when they go back to school, and we’re not sending people back out into town because we want the kids to be safe.”

But he acknowledged that the Covid-19 reproduction number, or R value, may still increase when schools reopen.

Dr Ladhani said: “At the end of the day it’s very, very dependent on community infection rates as to what happens with schools.

“It’s not just about the schools. It’s about going to schools, it’s about parents actually using public transport to get their children to schools, it is about meeting and picking them up so the whole process of schooling comes with a small risk.”