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There are few signs so far that the B.1.617.2 Covid variant is having much impact on school attendance in England, based on the latest figures from the Department for Education.
The data from last Wednesday for state schools show that the rates of absence were little changed from the week before, with the number of pupils off with confirmed Covid-19 cases stable at around 3,000. Including those self-isolating because of contact with suspected cases, 85,000 children were off school for what the DfE calls Covid-related reasons, very similar to the previous week.
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said it was good news that more pupils weren’t having their education interrupted. But Barton warned:
In the longer term, we are going to need a plan to minimise the potential for educational disruption caused by the emergence of new variants.
Not only are there currently no plans to provide vaccines to pupils, or to prioritise vaccines for currently unvaccinated staff, but the existing Covid protocols mean that every positive case results in a wider group of close contacts having to self-isolate.
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