School outbreaks in Scotland and Northern Ireland, who returned 3 weeks ago, has shot from 53 five days ago to 81 – and schools in England already hit after only two days
The number of schools in Northern Ireland and Scotland hit by coronavirus outbreaks has soared to 81, up from 53 just five days ago – an acceleration given that schools there returned around three weeks ago.
In England, which re-opened its schools on Tuesday, five schools are already affected.
The outbreaks have seen hundreds of confirmed infections and tens of thousands of pupils and teachers in isolation and means that vulnerable relatives are at risk as well as children. Pupil to pupil transmission has now been confirmed and similar situations in other countries have seen ministers and experts there predicting that all children in school will eventually have suffered the virus.
In spite of these facts, both Boris Johnson and Keir Starmer agreed yesterday during PMQs that ‘schools are safe‘. The fact that they did so from a mostly-empty Commons chamber, with MPs not returning in full until November at the earliest, made a nonsense of their claimed confidence. Starmer’s admission that he had secretly promised support for Johnson in sending children back to school as long ago as mid-May was context for the bizarre agreement.
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I haven’t been assiduously watching or reading the news but it’s on in the background most of the day.
I don’t recall hearing a single word on school outbreaks on BBC News 24.
Well you wont see coverage unless Scummings issues a press release & it’s not in their interest to tell people they are failing. If he does then the MSM will then fawn all over him & thank him for his wonderfully written gift.
Of course you won’t hear about it on the beeb – they’re too concerned with revealing the next nonentity you probly haven’t heard of to be appearing in the ‘strictly’ line-up.
And once that’s done, they’ll all move on to: ‘And who will end up shagging who…here’s our list of top ten candidates?’ , as though anyone’s interested.
And after that it’ll be: ‘Aw, poor ‘x’ has broken a fingernail in rehearsals and requires counselling so will miss this week’s show…If YOU are affected by this issue call 0898….or go to www(dot)…’
Brain-numbing shite like that is the reason society’s bollocksed beyond repair; the reason we suffer the ‘celebrity’ moron as PM and the planet does with trump as POTUS.
Got to keep an eye on the news the majority watches to know what bullshit the Tories are handing them.
I was going to make the very same comment, not a word about Julian Assange trial either. BBC is just about Tory propaganda and little else, like the NHS it is run in the interest of private profit and we need to shout it from the roof tops.
Please, have you a source for these figures?
More garbage on the Skwawkbox land-fill (all proceeds to the Tory Party).
Funny old world is it not, but where I presently reside, the Hong Kong SAR, we have more than 900,000 persons in full-time education, and strangely, our government has suspended all Face-2-Face educational instruction until our own third wave of Covid-19 infections is reduced to under 10 per day – we’ve been in Lockdown for nearly six weeks and don’t expect Schools to resume until the months end at the earliest. I wonder what our Scientific Advisers know that the English/UK ones are unaware of?
One reason for our own stringent controls and suspension of traditional teaching is the fact that many households have elderly residing in them given we have a large elderly population and many households are three generations, so, not a good idea to make it easier to infect the elderly via kids transmitting the pathogen. Still, as Starmer only listens to Tories, he, like Bojo, can take ownership when the shit hits the fan, then both Bojo and Starmer can have blood on their hands, which Blairites seem to delight in!
So, there you have it, and, my nipper is not missing lessons as these have all been transferred to Zoom with lessons beginning at 8.20AM each morning – so, just enquire why the UK is incapable of following suit, unless its more to do with getting folks back in work than in public health safety?
Many families here don’t have computers or the internet and parents aren’t in a position to stay at home supervising their children. There is also a cultural difference between children here and in HK. A third of mainly poor children didn’t do any online learning in lockdown.
Also, infections aren’t so important for us as we don’t have so many multi-generational households and deaths are currently less than 10 a day.
kids have been wiping out the elderly since time immemorial
The chances of children dying from coronavirus are “vanishingly small.”
https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-childrens-chances-of-dying-from-covid-19-are-tiny-study-suggests-12057738
We shouldn’t shut down education and force parents to stay at home for a risk that is less than crossing a road.
People don’t need corralling. If they are in a vulnerable group, they should be provided with support and grandparents should exercise common sense.
The risk is not to children, it is to their older family members, particularly grandparents who may be lumbered with taking/picking them up!
Not defending the Tories in any way but I’ve never understood driving kids to school.
seems to me most ought to be capable of making their own way to school and back as soon as they’re traffic-aware.
I walked a mile or so to school and back from the age of 5 – we all did – being dropped off at school would have made you a softy, a Mummy’s boy. Or girl.
Didn’t feel deprived having to walk, only remember one fat kid in my year and rationing was over on sweets by then iirc.
Yes, there were fewer cars in 1955 but they had lousy brakes and when there are few cars around is when people are more likely to cross roads without looking – even kids are smart enough to be careful on busy roads.
Immediate driving ban for speeding or careless driving in signposted school areas (paint lampposts & white lines orange or something), anywhere at all when children are using pavements, any urban area during school travelling times, say 8:15 to 9:15 and whatever time kids go home these days.
Stupid comment, it’s not the kids, it’s the cross infections.
At just under 10 deaths a day I think we are managing the outbreak at the moment and we can use local lockdowns to continue to do so. Having just endured 9 years of austerity, I’m not happy at the prospect of another 40 to come (the economy is in 4 times worse condition now). Therefore, local lockdowns and common sense precautions seem a logical response to me rather than creating a generation of uneducated children of already poor families who will be a lot worse off when they lose their jobs.
“Many families here don’t have computers or the internet”
True.
Free broadband for all doesn’t look so ridiculous now, does it?
Spending on well-chosen infrastructure is never ridiculous.
HS2 may have been a good idea before the electric car and AI/robotics/5G revolutions, but before HS2 is built there’ll be the possibility of “road trains” made up of private self-driving vehicles linked bumper to bumper in complete safety at 70mph.
I agree. I always thought that if the government wanted a future proof train line it should have built a government subsidised maglev. As you say HS whatever will be redundant before it’s built. It was only proposed so financiers could live in country piles and commute to London imo.
Being hit by coronavirus is a new one on me
WTF does that mean
I wish to make my opposition to lockdowns, wherever possible, clear. If we lived in a Socialist society where people had state subsidised food, rent, transport etc. I’d be in favour of whatever measures the government/community could afford. Unfortunately we live in a kingdom where all political parties subscribe economically to socialising losses accrued by the rich and leaving the poor to the ravages of market forces. Under those conditions the best way to protect the poor is through not shutting down the economy for longer than necessary.
While we were out clapping the NHS, management was wasting money hand over fist and public health was being reorganised for good. You will no longer see queues in surgeries because you will be diagnosed over the phone and you can kiss all but rudimentary treatment goodbye in NHS dentists. Shops will be smaller with less choice disguised as being less consumerist while online grocery shopping will offer anything you wish for. Much of the coming reset so be disguised as as part of the ‘green new deal’ when it will be nothing of the sort. We can expect massive unemployment and boarded up shops while geopolitically we will spend more on ‘defence’, furthering America’s global ambition. This is true of any political party in our Kingdom.