Students told to put masks back on as cases rise
A DERBYSHIRE secondary school has asked its students to wear masks to help deal with a rising number of Covid cases.
The Belper School, in John O’Gaunts Way, informed parents earlier this week it was dealing with over 50 positive Covid cases among students.
Two members of staff are also off sick, with the school having recorded more cases now than in the whole of the previous academic year.
Students were asked to return to wearing masks from yesterday for the safety of others alongside existing prevention measures, as young people aged 12-15 begin to receive their vaccinations across the country.
In a statement, Nick Goforth, head teacher at the school, said: “The school is currently experiencing a rise in confirmed Covid cases in students of 10-15 per day.
“As a result, we have taken the precaution of asking students to wear masks in corridors from Friday, September 24. This is on top of our existing measures in areas such hygiene, lateral flow testing, ventilation and enhanced cleaning.
“Although Covid can often be a mild disease in the young, we want to minimise the risk of the illness spreading and being passed on to others who may be more vulnerable.”
The communication sent to parents from the school also revealed that 20 pupils, across all year groups, were off with suspected cases.
Pupils and staff are now no longer subjected to the “bubble” system, which wreaked havoc last year as whole classes were sent home after small numbers of cases.
Students are encouraged to take two lateral flow tests a week as part of routine testing, and must self-isolate for 10 days if they test positive.
However, close contacts do not need to self-isolate if they do not test positive themselves, with social distancing measures for each school decided by head teachers following the relaxation of Government rules in the summer.
These can include spacing out break and lunchtimes, having better ventilation in classrooms and mandating masks.
The school has more than 1,000
pupils, both boys and girls, from Year 7 to Year 13. Councillor Ben Bellamy, representative for Belper North on the Belper Town Council, called the rise in cases at the school “extremely worrying” in a post on social media and said he would continue to wear a mask in shops.
The new measure comes as the Guardian reports that figures from the Department for Education reveal more than 59,000 pupils across the country are off sick with confirmed Covid cases, and another 45,000 are absent with symptoms.
Mr Goforth reiterated that several other schools were in the same position. He added: “Many other schools both locally and nationally are experiencing the same growth in positive cases and we are liaising closely with local Public Health Bodies to ensure we take effective action.
“Should cases continue to grow we may take further safety measures over the coming days such as increased social distancing at break and lunch for example, to reduce any risk to students and their families.”
The Derby Telegraph reported earlier this week that although cases are falling across the county generally, some areas continue to record high levels of positive cases.
Kirk Hallam currently has the highest levels of Covid cases relative to its population, with 829.8 per 100,000 people testing positive.
Other hotspots include Chaddesden North, Buxton South and Matlock North, but Mike James, the clinical director at the Midland House vaccination centre in Derby city centre, claimed that 70% of those hospitalised are unvaccinated.
On Monday the NHS began vaccinating children aged 12 to 15, after the Government accepted the UK chief medical officers’ recommendation to extend the programme to this age group.
Health Secretary Sajid Javid said: “Getting the vital protection of the vaccine is now even easier with the national booking service opening to those aged 16 to 17 to book their vaccine. We know the vaccine works – with more than 123,100 lives saved, and 24 million infections and 230,000 hospitalisations prevented in England alone.”
Although Covid can often be a mild disease in the young, we want to minimise the risk of it spreading. Nick Goforth