North East Lincolnshire health boss says closing schools could be ‘short term'

Health bosses in North East Lincolnshire are worried over the rising number of coronavirus cases among Primary school children

Author: Rebecca Quarmby, Julie CastonPublished 19th Nov 2021

Heath bosses in North East Lincolnshire say closing schools could happen ‘short term if cases become very high among Primary School children.’

As it stands – under twelves haven’t yet got access to the coronavirus vaccination.

Figures from the council's latest epidemiology report show there are 392 confirmed Cases for ages 0-20 in North East Lincolnshire since 21st October 2021 compared with just 35 for over 80’s.

Geoff Barnes is the Public Health Director and North East Lincolnshire Council, he said:

“We’re in constant talks with headteachers particularly those head teachers of schools where numbers are significantly high"

"I think we would only recommend closes of school in an absolute last resort where they have very high numbers of cases because obviously children missing education – has a negative impact on them in terms of their long term health and well being so we're not at that level yet but if very high numbers did get affected, then we could recommend short term closures at the school to provide that kind of stopgap.”

"It's a little bit worrying at the moment. We've seen over the last two weeks numbers in the borough of Covid cases heading back upwards again. A lot of those cases are currently in primary school children who will not have had the vaccination"

You can hear all the latest news on the hour, every hour.