The sun being out, a return to offices and a lift of former restrictions feels like we’re ‘post-pandemic’, but we really aren’t.
Covid cases are highest among 0-18-year-olds at the moment, meaning children in schools are contracting coronavirus the most.
Though the self-isolation requirements have been scrapped in England, parents have made the decision to keep children away from schools in fear of spreading the virus. And cautionary measures like this are adding up around the country.
In the past two weeks, the number of absent pupils in schools in England more than tripled.
Due to Covid related reasons, more than 202,000 state school students were absent, according to figures from the Department of Education. Among these, 159,000 pupils had a confirmed positive case while 16,000 suspected they had Covid.
Isolation was a big reason for missing classes, as 17,000 were absent “due to attendance restrictions being in place to manage an outbreak or exceptional circumstances related to Covid” while a further 6,000 missed school for “isolation due to other reasons”.
While attendance was at 92.2% at the beginning of March, by the 17th, it fell to 89.7%.
So if you’re a parent, you might be worried about attendance and the quality of your child’s learning – but should you send your kids to school?
We spoke to Dr Bharat Pankhania, a clinical lecturer at the University of Exeter Medical School, who said the protocol for Covid should be the same as any other virus.
He tells HuffPost UK: “It’s very clear. Everyone has a responsibility to the community we live in to be safe. So we cannot have a situation where you are infectious and go to school. Be it Covid or something else, especially if it is something of an infectious nature, it ought not to be introduced into any setting, school, workplace, etc.”
Dr Pankhania says the response to a positive case for youngsters should be the same as for adults – keep testing and if you start testing negative on day five, you can come out of isolation early (legally there is no obligation to isolate).
But what of those pupils who come into contact with someone else who’s positive, say a friend, sibling or parent?
“If they are a contact of a case, they should be using a lateral flow device. You don’t necessarily need to test at day one, because that’s only day one of exposure. But more so around day three to five which is when most people become positive post exposure,” Dr Pankhania explains.
“So pragmatically, it is a good practice to say, ‘well, I was exposed on day one. At day three, let me make sure that I haven’t become a case and assiduously do a lateral flow device test’.”
He advises that in this situation, parents keep on checking to make sure their children haven’t converted to a positive case.
“And in the meantime, be careful,” he says. “So if I was a contact of a positive case, I would test myself before going to my work.”