Today has seen chaos in England’s schools after one teacher claimed that 26 teachers have been sick and students were sent home due to wave of positive results.
A secondary school headteacher informed the Guardian last night that he, along with 26 other staff members had tested positive for this virus.
Glyn Potts is the Head of Blessed John Henry Newman RC College Oldham. He said that some staff had to go home in order to care for their children because their nurseries closed down due to Covid absenteeism.
Parents claim that their children tested positive for Covid at school despite having ‘no symptoms’.
As part of a national program designed to identify and treat cases, students returning to school are being examined today.
In an effort to identify potential cases and prevent them spreading through the schools, every secondary student from England will have to pass a lateral flow exam upon entering their class.
Heads of schools fear that as many as 25% could lose their jobs this month. However, unions are warning that an online return to teaching may soon be the norm – even though Education Secretary Nadhim Zihawi maintains face-to–face classes will continue to be the norm.
But experts such as epidemiologist Neil Ferguson – dubbed ‘Professor Lockdown’ after producing research in March 2020 that convinced the Government to shutdown the country – today said the ‘good news’ about Omicron is that ‘it is certainly less severe’ than previous variants of Covid.
Students returning to school are subject to testing as part a national program that aims to identify cases, including those that may be asymptomatic. This is happening today. Pictured: Students return to Foxhill Primary School, Queensbury, West Yorkshire, after the Christmas break
This, he said, had kept hospital visits down relative to previous highs. US data last month showed that at least 40% of people who had the Delta variant were still symptomatic.
Omicron has been criticized for being less severe, leading to calls to cut the self-isolation for positive Covid cases by the Government from 7 to 5 days – in order to align it with the US.
Business chiefs were concerned that there would be a new staffing shortage due to isolation of workers, and the deadline was shortened from 10 to 7 months last month.
Today, parents were furious at the fact that their children had to be picked up less than an hour after returning to school after being tested for Covid on the lateral flow. This was despite not having any symptoms.
The government advises anyone who has positive results for lateral flows to get isolated while they wait for confirmation from PCR.
A parent took to Twitter to vent their frustration and wrote, “Son comes in for test at 8.30am. It is positive at 9.10am so he requires a PCR.
“It’s possible that he suffered from Covid in October. But the Government decided not to acknowledge it. So, he is more absent in Year 11.
Another said: “Well, Leo went to school just an hour ago. I have to go pick him up again as Leo has been positive for Covid.” Next is the PCR test.
Twitter user who claimed to work at a primary school wrote, “I work in the primary school.” There have been zero children who were sickened by it.
“Even children with CF who are positive didn’t know they had it. Last term, more children became ill with the chicken pox virus and vomiting bug.