Schools should reopen ‘even if they have to be shut again’
IT IS worth reopening schools even if they have to be shut again, a scientist advising the Government has said.
Dr Michael Tildesley, associate professor at the University of Warwick, who sits on a panel within the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), said reopening schools would not be a mistake if restrictions had to be reintroduced again as it would mean experts will have more information about Covid-19.
Dr Tildesley said members of the Children’s Task and Finish Working Group within Sage, which advises ministers on the risk to pupils, reached a “cautious consensus” that classrooms should be gradually reopened due to the low risk young people face.
However, the lack of evidence on the role children play in transmitting the virus is one factor that creates uncertainty over what the impact of opening schools could be, he said.
“If something is relaxed and then has to be reintroduced later that doesn’t necessarily mean that the relaxation was a mistake,” Dr Tildesley said.
“What it does mean is that we now have much more of an understanding and we can modify our responses taking into account the new information.”
Earlier this month the Government unveiled plans to send children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 6 back to school as early as June 1.
Dr Tildesley stressed that the UK was in the very early stages of lifting the lockdown and that everyone must be “prepared to be reactive”.
“There is evidence to suggest that a cautious reopening of schools is a reasonable strategy to take. But we should be prepared, if we do see start cases going back up, to close them again,” he said.