The Times - UK (2022-01-03)

8 2GM Monday January 3 2022 | the times

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pupils do not need to be kept in consist-

ent groups, you may wish to consider

combining classes. Where there is a

need for remote education, livestream-

ing is the preferred method for provid-

ing this wherever possible.”

The Department for Education also

said that masks were unlikely to be

necessary during exams this summer

and that schools should consider

whether to proceed with planned inter-

national trips at this time.

While Ofsted inspections have not

been suspended, the regulator will not

ask inspectors who are also head teach-

ers to undertake inspections, so they

can focus on their main responsibility.

Separate guidance for universities

says that face coverings are recom-

mended but not for staff while teaching.

Halfon told the PA news agency that

there was limited evidence about the

efficacy of masks in schools. He said:

“Even Jonathan Van-Tam said in

November that masks were really

inhibitory to the natural expressions of

learning in children involving speech

and facial expression, and that it’s very

difficult for children with face masks.”

He said the risks of Covid-19, with

staff vaccinated, needed to be balanced

against the risks to children’s mental

health and wellbeing.

However, Deepti Gurdasani, a senior

lecturer in epidemiology at Queen

Mary University London, said: “There’s

Bins piling up

because staff

are off sick

Nadeem Badshah

Suffering from a cold after

pandemic? Time to isolate

followed by “anybody who has a cold, or

symptoms of a cold, runny nose or

cough, sneezing,” asking: “Is it really ap-

propriate for you to go on a train or a

plane or a bus? Stay home, get better.”

Atherton, who has been in post since

2016, admitted that there were “real im-

plications” to his suggestion. “It’s easier

for some of us, who can work at home,

to do that. And we need to think about

the remuneration arrangements for

people who have to self-isolate. So I

think beyond the pandemic, there is a

huge piece of work to do in public

health terms and in government terms

about how we can prevent these viruses

from circulating in the future.”

Atherton claimed that in Wales

people have been “more cautious” in

the face of coronavirus over the past

two years. Under the latest restrictions

introduced by Mark Drakeford’s

Labour administration, groups of more

than six cannot meet in pubs and res-

taurants, nightclubs are shut, and two-

metre social distancing is in effect.

“Throughout the pandemic, I would

say, a feature of Welsh life has been that

we’ve been more cautious,” Atherton

said. “We have had tighter restrictions

than some of the other nations at parti-

cular moments during the pandemic.

By and large, whenever we’ve asked the

Welsh public what their view of that is,

they’ve welcomed the fact that we are

more cautious than some of the other

nations.”

Henry Zeffman

Bin collections have been cancelled or

scaled back due to staff being off sick or

isolating because of Covid-19.

Ministers are preparing for a worst-

case scenario under which a quarter of

public-sector workers could be absent

due to the virus.

Councils in Buckinghamshire, Essex,

Manchester and Somerset have scaled

back or suspended waste collections.

Chelmsford city council has cancelled

three days of food waste collections,

saying 23 staff are absent.

The Local Government Association

said that waste and recycling crews had

been particularly affected by absences

over the festive period.

Ed Argar, the health minister, said on

Times Radio that the government was

“doing the responsible and sensible

thing” by asking the public sector to

prepare for a worst-case scenario of up

to a quarter of staff off work.

The Cabinet Office said on Saturday

that disruption caused by Omicron had

been controlled in “most parts of the

public sector”. However, it said leaders

had been asked to test plans against

workforce absence rates of up to 25 per

cent. Asked if he thought such levels

were likely, Argar said that the govern-

ment modelled “highly unlikely” sce-

narios to prepare for all eventualities.

Outbreaks in

care homes

rise sharply

Kat Lay

Coronavirus outbreaks in care homes
rose sharply in a week, according to
official figures.
NHS leaders said, however, that they
had not seen a rise in care home resi-
dents being admitted to hospital, which
suggests that the booster vaccine is pro-
tecting people against severe illness.
UK Health Security Agency data for
the week to December 19 shows 250
outbreaks were recorded in care
homes, up from 145 the week before and
131 a fortnight earlier. There had been
957 outbreaks of “acute respiratory in-
fections” of any kind in care homes over
the past four weeks, the figures show.
“For the numbers to rise like this is a
real concern,” said Caroline Abrahams
of Age UK. “The next two or three
weeks will be crucial.”
Chris Hopson, chief executive of
NHS Providers, which represents
health service trusts, said: “If we were
likely to be on the end of a very large
surge, with seriously ill old people, you
would have thought that outbreaks in
care homes would be a likely place [to
start seeing a] significant increase in
admissions. So far... we aren’t seeing
this.”
More than 82.3 per cent of care home
residents have had a booster, NHS En-
gland said.

Head teachers should send groups of
children home and merge classes if
necessary to keep schools open, the
education secretary has said.
All secondary school pupils in
England will be expected to wear masks
in classrooms and communal areas
once schools reopen from tomorrow.
Critics including Robert Halfon,
chairman of the Commons education
select committee, said that masks could
be damaging to children and questioned
whether their reintroduction was nec-
essary but scientists argued there was
no evidence of their use harming pupils.
Teaching unions and some primary
school heads said that more measures
were needed to make schools safe amid
the Omicron wave.
Schools start reopening from tomor-
row and all secondary pupils are ex-
pected to take lateral flow tests on site
before rejoining lessons and to con-
tinue doing so from home twice a week.
Guidance issued yesterday was criti-
cised for coming so close to the end of
the Christmas holidays. It said that
schools should maintain their capacity
to “deliver high-quality remote educa-
tion for this academic year”.
An open letter to schools from Nad-
him Zahawi, the education secretary,
said: “If operational challenges caused
by workforce shortages in your setting
make delivery of face-to-face teaching
impossible, I would encourage you to
consider ways to implement a flexible
approach to learning. [This] involves
utilising all your available teaching and
non-teaching workforce to maximise
on-site education for as many pupils as
possible while you flexibly deliver pro-
vision either on-site or remotely to
some pupils. This should only be on a
short-term measure.”
Guidance sent to heads added: “As

News Coronavirus

Keep schools open by merging

actually a lot of very strong evidence

that masks in schools reduce school

outbreaks, infection in children and in

parents alongside other measures.”

Trish Greenhalgh, professor of

primary care health sciences at the

University of Oxford, said: “The evi-

dence of harm [of facemasks] has been

consistently exaggerated since the start

of the pandemic. First they said masks

were major sources of infection (they

weren’t). Then they said if people mask,

they’ll stop doing other healthy things

like social distancing (they didn’t). Now

they say children’s mental health will be

harmed (it won’t).”

Beth Collins, assistant head teacher

at the Laurels primary school in

Worthing, West Sussex, told the BBC

she felt that “once again primaries have

been forgotten”, saying that as primary

pupils were unvaccinated “it has left us

open to every danger going”.

Mary Bousted, joint general secre-

tary of the National Education Union,

said the recommendation of masks in

secondary classrooms was “overdue”.

The government announced 7,

more air purifiers for classrooms yes-

terday, on top of an earlier 1,000, but

Bousted said: “This is completely

inadequate for what should be a basic

human right. The government

recognises the problem but with over

300,000 classrooms in England they

have failed to provide an effective

solution.”

Zahawi said: “Being in face-to-face

learning is undoubtedly the very best

place for children and young people’s

education and wellbeing, and my

priority remains on keeping early years

settings, schools, colleges and universi-

ties open so that face-to-face education

can continue.”

Yesterday on Twitter Zahawi said of

his appeal to former or retired teachers

to return to schools for the new term: “I

know many have stepped forward and

it’s this Blitz spirit that will be essential

in turning the tide on Covid.”

Nicola Woolcock Education Editor
Kat Lay Health Editor
Henry Zeffman
Chief Political Reporter

0

50,

100,

150,

Oct Jan Apr Jul Oct Jan

The national picture

How many people have Covid-19?

There were 137,583 new cases reported

yesterday, bringing the total to 13,235,

or 198.1 for every 1,000 people

How many are in hospital?

There are 11,918 patients in hospital being

treated. 868 patients are on ventilators. An

additional 1,915 patients have been

admitted, up 49.9 per cent in the seven

days to December 27 when this data was

last updated

Oct Jan Apr Jul Oct

0

1,

2,

3,

4,

Hospital admissions

Seven-day

average

Daily cases

Seven-day

average

How many have died?

Yesterday, there were 73 deaths reported,

bringing the total number of deaths in the

past seven days to 981. The rolling

average number of daily deaths is 140.1,

up from 93.3 a day a week ago

How does 2021 compare?

There were 11,930 deaths from all causes

recorded in England and Wales in the week

to December 10, of which the coronavirus

accounted for 6.4 per cent. The number of

weekly deaths was 1,235 higher than the

five-year average for the same time of year

Oct Jan Apr Jul Oct Jan

0

500

1,

1,

Deaths

Seven-day

average

Apr Jul Oct Jan Apr Jul Oct

0

5,

10,

15,

2020/21 20,

Five-year average

National

R number

1.0 to 1.

43.1% increase from seven days ago

(based on seven-day moving average)

Trouble in store? Carnaby Street in the

People with colds should isolate from

society “for a few days” in future, one of

Britain’s most senior medical figures

has said.

Sir Frank Atherton, chief medical

officer for Wales, said it would make

society “safer” if people carrying infec-

tions followed a Covid-style isolation

process, even once the present wave of

the pandemic has subsided.

“Looking beyond the current wave,

even, we need to think about how we

behave as a society when we have any

of these infections,” Atherton told

Times Radio.

“Whether it’s flu or the common cold,

or coronavirus, we probably need to

move to a position where anybody who

has a viral infection of that nature self-

isolates, whether they’re an adult or a

child, for a few days, just to stop it trans-

mitting. I think we would be safer as a

society, and probably more economi-

cally protected as a society if we all

adopted that kind of measure.”

Atherton said his advice should be

Sir Frank Atherton

said isolating more

would help protect

the economy