North West health professional warns more should be done as schools re-open

There are warnings schools across the North West could be hit by a surge of Omicron cases when they come back for the new term.

Some pupils return to the classroom today, with new advice for those in English schools to wear masks and be tested twice a week.

Across the county, around one in three high school age children still aren't fully vaccinated and infection rates are the highest they've ever been with 1 in 65 testing positive for the virus.

"Until we start vaccinating the primary school age we've still got a problem"

Professor John Ashton, former Director of Public Health for the North West, says that more could be done to reduce transmission.

"It's going to be very difficult for the next few months", said Mr Ashton.

"Until we start vaccinating the primary school age we've still got a problem, the pandemic at the moment is being driven by infection in younger people.

"We should have erected temporary outdoor open air classrooms, like they have in the open-air schools in Scandinavia."

The former Director of Public Health added: "There are tens of thousands of newly qualified teachers who are not working because the schools haven't the budget to employ them.

"We can take the opportunity to reduce class sizes to be more like they are in the private sector. You can have classes of 10 to 15, then the children can be spread out.

"There are lots of demoralised kids out there. We're now into the third year of disrupted education, and you only get one bite at this, particularly if you're coming from a background that's not privileged, where maybe there aren't many books at home and you parents haven't had a higher education. People in a privileged position will catch up."

Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi says schools should be prepared to merge classes into large groups if staff shortages mount.

"What we're saying is, look, with Omicron, because it's so infectious, we want to make sure that we give you as many tools to be able to make sure that education is open", he said.

But he admitted it was "more challenging, of course, to deliver education with masks on in the classroom".

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: "It's hard to imagine that if the NHS is being affected, that retail is being affected, if sporting fixtures are being affected, it's hard to see why you wouldn't in schools and colleges have the same issues around staff shortages."

Boris Johnson admitted the conditions for learning with masks were not ideal but, the education secretary said, "the most important thing is to keep them (schools) open."

Omicron's impact across sectors

Elsewhere across the region, public services are bringing in emergency plans amid increased staff shortages caused by the Omicron variant of Covid-19.

The NHS, transport, education and utilities sectors are among the industries suffering, with at least six hospital trusts declaring critical incidents which may threaten priority care.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said yesterday (Monday 3 January) that he would "make sure that we look after our NHS any way that we can".

Though, health leaders expressed the "state of crisis" that the NHS was in, while chief executive of NHS Providers Chris Hopson said: "a number of trusts across country have declared internal critical incidents over the last few days".

United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust, one of those affected, reported that their "extreme and unprecedented" staff shortages will likely result in "compromised care."

Relentless Covid figures

High numbers of Covid-19 cases across the UK have similarly caused disruption to bin collection and rail services, which have also been affected by industrial action.

It's as 157,758 new people reported a confirmed positive test result in England and Scotland as of 9am on Monday 3 January, latest Government figures revealed.

A further 42 people had died in England within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19, while Office for National Statistics data shows there's now been 174,000 deaths registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.

Visiting a vaccination centre on Monday, the Prime Minister acknowledged the pressure staff were under and said it was "vital that we make sure that we help them by trying to contain the pandemic" by getting vaccinated and following plan B measures.

What are the Government's 'Plan B' measures for England?

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• omicron
• staff shortages