Daily Mail

Classroom ‘as safe as staying home’

-

GOING to school does not put children at any greater risk of the virus than staying at home, a study claims today.

Public Health England calculated that infection rates were 3.9 per 100,000 for pupils under 11, rising to 11.3 per 100,000 amongst teachers. The researcher­s therefore pointed out that the risk was no greater than if they were at home.

The findings – based on 12,047 children and teachers at 131 schools – are the latest in a series of studies to suggest youngsters are very safe. Only last week Department of Health-funded research found the chance of death from the virus was ‘vanishingl­y rare’ for pupils. But this latest study only looked at pre-school and primarysch­ool aged children, it did not include those at secondary school.

Lead author of the study, Dr Shamez Ladhani said: ‘This is the largest study of its kind in the country and suggests attending preschool and primary school brings no additional risk to either staff or students.’ Experts believe secondary school pupils are at higher risk of having severe symptoms.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United Kingdom