Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said he hopes schools will be able to reopen by Easter, but it will all depend on Covid-19 data.
“We’ve got to look at the data, we’ve got to look at the impact of the vaccination programme” he said when asked about fully reopening schools on Sky this morning.
According to a report in The Sunday Times, Gavin Williamson, the education secretary is reported to be ready to rule out children returning to the classroom after the February half-term holiday.
During the Sky interview Mr Hancock was asked if there needed to be a tightening of restrictions?
In response he said: “”Well there is early evidence that the lockdown is starting to bring cases down, but we’re a long, long, long way from being low enough.”
“I am confident in the measures that we’ve got in place now. What really matters is that everybody follows them and the reason for that is not just the death toll each day which is far too high but also because the pressure on the NHS”
“So it is very, very important that we continue to follow the rules, that’s at the core of it even whilst we do everything we can to support the NHS through this.”
