Primary school closes after Covid outbreak

The Office for National Statistics published the final Covid-19 infection survey on Friday - iStockphoto
The Office for National Statistics published the final Covid-19 infection survey on Friday - iStockphoto

A primary school has closed for almost a week because of a Covid-19 outbreak.

Parents of pupils at Coomb Briggs Primary Academy in Lincolnshire received an email on Tuesday morning asking them to collect their children at 1.15pm the same day.

They were told the school was closing due to Covid-19. The school later said that a significant number of staff were unwell owing to Covid infections.

“Unfortunately we are having to make the decision to close the school for the rest of the week due to Covid 19,” the email stated. “We feel we cannot safely keep the school operational this week; however, business will resume as normal on Monday 27th March.”

Parents at the school have said they are furious about being forced to pay for childcare for most of the week.

“Everyone’s unhappy,” one parent told Grimsby Live. “We’ve got a Facebook group and everyone is up in arms.

“We all work and now we’re having to pay for childcare.”

The parent added: “We understand Covid is still around but just learn to live with it, there’s no need to close the whole school. A better option would have been to close a single-year group and move staff around. They did that for the strikes so surely they can do it for this.”

Arabella Skinner, director of the parents’ group UsForThem, said: “One consequence of the lockdown is that it now seems acceptable to shut down schools as a first response to any issue. Whilst safeguarding children has to be the first priority, it is mind-blowing that a school is unable to have enough of the ‘right type’ of staff for almost a week. It is just another example of the ‘stop-start’ attitude to education that is now so pervasive.”

A spokesperson for Wellspring Academy Trust, which manages the primary school, said: “A significant number of staff have been affected by Covid at the same time, all of whom hold the responsibilities for health and fire safety.

“With a number of other staff also reporting symptoms of ill health the decision was made to close the school for the remainder of the week. A deep clean is being undertaken to ensure the safest return for all who are fit to return when school reopens on Monday.”

Final Covid-19 infection survey

It comes as the Office for National Statistics (ONS) published the final Covid-19 infection survey on Friday, ending the widespread monitoring of cases and drawing a line under the country’s pandemic response.

The ONS has been swabbing a nationwide cohort of participants since April 2020, giving a far better indication of how many actually have the virus compared with testing alone.

Since free testing ended, it has been the main indicator of the fall and rise in cases, and Friday’s report showed that infections have risen slightly from 1.5 to 1.7 million, meaning around one in 40 people has Covid-19 across Britain.

But with the majority of people now having had the virus, or been vaccinated, the risk from an infection is far lower, and the NHS needs to deal with fewer serious cases.

As of March 23,  there were 8,109 patients in English hospitals with Covid-19, just 34 per cent were admitted primarily for coronavirus.

The ONS survey has been officially paused, rather than disbanded and the participant group told they may be needed in future.

Prof Sir David Spiegelhalter, Emeritus Professor of Statistics, University of Cambridge, said: “The Covid Infection Survey has been an extraordinary achievement – since it was rapidly established in April 2020 it has provided vital evidence of great value both to national policy and international scientific understanding.

“It is expensive, and this has led to it being paused, but the participant group is not being disbanded and a survey should be able to ramp up when necessary.

“Meanwhile there are important lessons to be learned for future emergencies, both by us and every other country.”