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An announcement will be made about the return of schools in England after the Christmas holidays, amid rising rates of coronavirus cases and hospital admissions.
Education Secretary Gavin Williamson will make a statement in the House of Commons this afternoon.
There has been growing concern from teaching unions and scientists about the spread of the virus following the discovery of its much more transmissible variant.
An overnight YouGov poll suggested that 43% of 7,999 British adults surveyed “strongly support” keeping schools in England closed for two more weeks after the Christmas holidays.
Only 9% “strongly opposed” and 10% “somewhat opposed” to keeping school doors closed, YouGov said.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the goal is “to protect education as much as possible,” but acknowledged the challenge posed by the new variant.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today program: “The Secretary of Education will present his proposals later today. Clearly, we want to protect education as much as possible.
“But the new variant makes the transmission of this disease much easier. So we will protect education as much as we can.”
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was scheduled to chair a key meeting today to delay the reopening of secondary schools, according to the Daily Telegraph.
The Labor Party had asked Williamson to make a statement to MPs on the plan for schools and universities, and shadow education secretary Kate Green said “staff and students are asking for clarity on the start of the period next week. “
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He added: “Government silence is not an option.”
Earlier this month, the government said that exam year students would return to school normally after the Christmas break, but most high school students would start the period online to allow principals to implement massive tests of children and staff.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan said he did not want to see children’s education disrupted, but due to the worsening situation in hospitals, he called on ministers to “delay the reopening of secondary schools for in-person learning to most of the children until the end of January. “
Professor Neil Ferguson, a member of the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threat Advisory Group (Nervtag), said schools may be “necessary” if it is “the only alternative to having an exponentially increasing number of hospitalizations.”
Members of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), Professor Andrew Hayward and Dr. Mike Tildesley, have also suggested a possible “slight delay” for students to return to the scene.
The prime minister’s official spokesman said yesterday at a briefing in Westminster that “they are still planning a phased opening of schools and we are working to ensure testing is in place.
But he added that all the measures are “under constant review.”
The tiered approach would have primary school pupils and Year 11 and Year 13 pupils return in the first week of January, with other students returning later in the month.
UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced the approval of the Oxford / AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine this morning.
A spokesperson for the UK Department of Health and Welfare said: “The Government has today accepted the recommendation of the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to authorize the use of the Covid-19 vaccine from the University of Oxford / AstraZeneca.
“This follows rigorous clinical trials and a comprehensive analysis of the data by MHRA experts, which has concluded that the vaccine has met its strict standards for safety, quality and efficacy.”
Data published in the medical journal The Lancet in early December showed that the vaccine was 62% effective in preventing Covid-19 among a group of 4,440 people who received two standard doses of the vaccine compared to 4,455 people who received a placebo drug.
Of 1,367 people who received half of the first dose of the vaccine followed by a second full dose, there was 90% protection against Covid-19 compared to a control group of 1,374 people.
The Lancet general data, which were peer-reviewed, present the complete results of clinical trials of more than 20,000 people.
Among the people who received the placebo drug, ten were admitted to the hospital with coronavirus, including two with severe Covid that resulted in one death.
But among those who received the vaccine, there were no hospital admissions or serious cases.
The half dose followed by a full dose regimen occurred as a result of accidental dosing error.
However, the MHRA was informed of what had happened and clinical trials of the vaccine were allowed to continue.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the approval of the Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine is a “great British success story.”
He told Times Radio: “This is a great British success story and the reason it matters so much is that this vaccine is easy to administer, it just needs to be stored at normal refrigerator temperature so that we can take it directly to doctors in Headboard”. surgeries, in nursing homes, and critically we have 100 million doses on the way for everyone to get vaccinated.
“Because of the way it was approved, because the second dose is only needed after 12 weeks, it means that we can accelerate the launch of this.”
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson hailed the development as a “triumph for British science.”
It is truly fantastic news, and a triumph for British science, that the @UniofOxford /@AstraZeneca The vaccine has been approved for use.
Now we will proceed to vaccinate as many people as possible as soon as possible. pic.twitter.com/cR4pRdZJlT
– Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) December 30, 2020
In an interview with the Sunday Times, AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot suggested that additional data presented to the regulator showed that the vaccine could match the 95% efficacy achieved by the Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna vaccines.
“We believe we have discovered the winning formula and how to achieve efficacy that, after two doses, is on par with all the others,” he said.
On Monday, Calum Semple, a professor of outbreak medicine at the University of Liverpool and a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), described the vaccine as a “game changer” but said it would take until the summer to vaccinate enough people for herd immunity: when the virus has difficulty circulating.
“To gain herd immunity from the general community from vaccination rather than through natural infection, it will probably take 70% to 80% of the population to get vaccinated, and that, I’m afraid, will take us straight to summer, I hope, “he said.
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