New health secretary Sajid Javid has pledged to look again at coronavirus measures in schools, after thousands of pupils were told to self-isolate.
Working parents across the country are struggling as entire class ‘bubbles’ are sent home, often for up to 10 days, after a contact tests positive for the virus.
Mr Javid made the pledge as he came under pressure from Tory MPs who urged him to recognise that children had “suffered enough” during the pandemic.
Mr Javid, who only took the job on Saturday night after his predecessor Matt Hancock resigned following an admission he broke lockdown restrictions to carry out an affair, said he hoped to make an announcement on schools “as soon as possible”.
He is understood to be studying a trial currently being carried out in some schools, which attempts to use regular Covid tests, instead of sending young people home to self-isolate, to limit the spread of the disease.
Mr Javid also promised MPs that he would consider whether or not the government could go “further” in a bid to keep kids in school, amid a surge in cases of the Delta variant.
He was pressed on the issue by the Tory MP and former health minister Steve Brine, who asked him: “Have our young people not suffered enough?”
Mr Javid told him: “This is a very important issue and something I have focused on in day one in the job. “Hopefully I will be able to say more on this as soon as possible”.
Mr Javid also suggested he would look again at the use of masks in schools, as cases continue to rise.
Secondary schools were allowed to drop the use of masks weeks ago, before the Delta variant took hold across the UK.
But some unions have called for them to be reinstated, to help contain the spread of the virus within schools.
The row erupted as another 22,868 Covid-19 cases were confirmed in the UK, the highest daily rise since January 30.
Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth warned Mr Javid that his plans to lift further lockdown restrictions next month could affect schools.
“Today we’ve seen the highest case rate since January,” he said.
“If these trends continue, we could hit 35,000 to 40,000 cases a day by 19 July.
“That will mean more long Covid… that will mean more disruption to schooling, for some it will mean hospitalisation.”
