Schools stay open – but will be forced to send kids home who have a cough
SCHOOLS will stay open but kids with a cough will be sent home for 14 days to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
Boris Johnson today said Britain did not need to close classrooms yet as he tried to crack down on the spiralling number of cases across the UK.
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The PM said: “We think it’s better we can keep schools open for all sorts of reasons but we will keep this under review.”
Chief Scientific Advisor Sir Patrick Vallance said: "It may be necessary to think about things like school closures but they have to be done at the right time."
Some 55 people in the UK have already died, and more than 1,500 cases have been reported so far.
Schools are being told send home anyone who becomes unwell with a “new, continuous cough or a high temperature”.
If kids cannot be collected immediately, teachers are being urged to usher them into a room on their own where they can be isolated “behind a closed door”.
The government advice says “ideally” there should be an open window, and that they must try and use a separate toilet.
This must then be cleaned and disinfected before anyone else can use it.
Teachers who help them are told to continue as normal, unless they take ill themselves.
Despite the rising number of infected people, the Government says that “in most cases” schools do not need to close if a child becomes ill.
It comes as:
- Millions of workers stay at home today in ghost town Britain
- Brits could face fines or even jail if they ignore quarantine rules under new emergency laws coming to Parliament this week
- Ministers are warning that they could be forced to ration supermarket products if panic buying continues
- Shoppers are continuing to raid supermarkets for food and supplies - even as officials begged them not to
- Boris Johnson will chair another emergency COBRA today
- More measures are expected to be revealed - including a ban on mass gatherings
- The youngest UK patient who has died of coronavirus was revealed as a 59-year-old man yesterday
- Leaked documents say up to 8million could be hospitalised, and the outbreak may last up to a year
The crisis has seen thousands of schoolchildren vow not to show up to lessons to protest against the government's refusal to close schools as fears of coronavirus grow.
A Twitter hashtag has sparked a walkout movement among young Brits scared of catching the deadly virus.
The hashtag #Covid19walkout has inspired thousands to stay at home this Friday while the government insists shutting the doors of schools will be a last-resort option.
School heads and teaching unions are holding talks with Education Secretary Gavin Williamson today as the pressure grows to to close classrooms for at least a month - despite concerns over what this would mean for parents who work in the NHS, or other key roles.
An online petition demanding school closures has had almost 600,000 signatures.
Meanwhile, it emerged today that more than 10,000 armed forces staff could be put on standby over the spread of coronavirus.
Codenamed Operation Broadshare, the plans are said to have been drawn up a few weeks ago only to be massively changed due to the soaring spread of the virus.
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