Urgent testing of pupils after variant-linked class sent home
A PRIMARY school is at the centre of efforts to stem an omicron variant outbreak in Essex, with an entire class sent home to isolate after a “household link” was found.
Larchwood Primary School has sent a class of Year 6 pupils home for one week as a “precaution”.
All pupils at the school have been asked to take PCR tests, while public health officials delivered test kits to the the pupils who had been sent home.
Some parents whose children are in other classes have decided to keep them at home. Melissa Manzi said: “I’m obviously concerned. My child’s in one of the other younger classes – the school is testing everybody and we’ve all been told to come and collect tests. Some mums have not sent their children in.”
Essex county council said on Saturday that a positive case of omicron had been found in Brentwood.
At the time, it was the second case to be detected in the UK, after another in Nottingham, linked to travel from South Africa. On Sunday, members of a church congregation and visitors at a KFC outlet in Brentwood were told to get a PCR test. Yesterday morning, council bosses announced there was a “household link” of the omicron case to Larchwood.
However, Brentwood leisure centre’s NHS mobile testing unit has been “much quieter than normal”, The Daily Telegraph has learnt after an official said: “We’ve had about 10 people in the last hour and a maximum of 60 today, if even that. Normally we’d have three times that.”
Yesterday, Nadhim Zahawi, the Education Secretary, when asked on ITV’S This Morning if closing schools was the “last possible option”, replied: “Absolutely.” He also urged schools to “carry on” organising nativity shows.