School asks pupils to wear face masks

A Sunderland school has asked all students to bring a face mask to wear indoors following an increase in local and national coronavirus cases.

St Anthony's and St Aidan's Sixth Form has asked all students to bring a face covering to school to wear inside from today until the end of term after an increase of covid infections both locally and nationally.

The news comes after leaders on the LA7 group of North East councils asked for powers to impose face masks in North East schools and curb events if necessary amid ‘extreme concern’ over the rising covid cases.

The LA7 said hospitalisations are slowly rising again

in some parts of the country, particularly among younger age groups and those who are not fully protected by the vaccine, though thankfully deaths remain low.

Leaders from LA7 said they are “seeking local autonomy to reintroduce face coverings in North East school settings until the end of term and to further localise NHS Test and Trace to support the huge efforts around contact tracing and isolation.”

New figures released earlier in the week revealed that just over 350 new cases of the Delta variant have been recorded in Sunderland as more than 150 new covid cases were recorded in the city on Sunday.

The school tweeted: “Given the recent local, and national rise, in covid infections we are returning to the use of face coverings in all indoor areas of school.

"All students should bring a face mask and spare, from today until the end of term (July 16).”