PM makes reopening schools top priority with ‘little evidence’ of virus transmission

THE country has a moral duty to reopen schools next month, Boris Johnson said, as it emerged that there is “little evidence” of virus transmission in them.

Ensuring that all children return to school next month is now the “country’s top priority”, Mr Johnson has said, because of the greater risk to them from the shutdown than from the coronavirus.

The Prime Minister stressed the urgency of getting all children in England back into class next month after telling officials that schools would be the last to close if a nationwide lockdown is reimposed.

The coronavirus pandemic resulted in schools being closed on March 20, before many businesses. They will have been closed for more than five months by the start of the new academic year next month. There is “little evidence” that coronavirus is transmitted in schools, one of the country’s most eminent child health experts has said.

Prof Russell Viner, the president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health and member of Sage, said a study of 100 schools would show the virus had not circulated widely. The study by Public Health England is one of the largest of its kind and will be published later in the year.

“It is absolutely essential for schools to reopen in September. The risks to children from Covid are very low and the risks of school closures we know are very serious,” Prof Viner told The Sunday Times.

Mr Johnson is planning to visit a school tomorrow to see first hand how schools are preparing for all children to return and the “Covid-secure” measures they have in place.

In meetings last week, according to No10, the Prime Minister “stressed that the harm done to children’s education prospects by not attending school, as well as to their mental health, is far more damaging than the low risk posed” by the virus.

He told officials that there can be “no excuses” for children not returning to school this September and tasked ministers and government departments to continue working around the clock to ensure all children were able to smoothly return next month.

A No10 spokesman said: “The Prime Minister confirmed that children’s education must be the country’s top priority over the coming months and that in the event of a local lockdown, his expectation would be that schools would be the absolute last sector to be asked to close – and unprecedented steps would be taken to avoid this happening anywhere in the country.”

‘His expectation would be that schools would be the absolute last sector to be asked to close’