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Weekly rapid coronavirus tests will be available to secondary schools and universities in England next month, the government announced.
As part of the initial rollout, all staff members will be eligible for the weekly rapid COVID-19 tests.
If students are identified as a close contact of someone who tested positive for the virus, they will be eligible for daily testing for seven days.
Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said the “great expansion” of testing is a “historic moment in our work to keep schools and colleges open to all.”
“I know it took a phenomenal effort from everyone to ensure that approximately 99% of the schools have been open each week since the beginning of the quarter,” he continued.
“Testing on this scale brings real benefits to education, it means that more children, teachers and staff can stay in their classes at schools and colleges without the need for isolation.”
The announcement comes after the Greenwich Council in South East London said he “had no choice” but to tell schools to stay open after threats of legal action by the government.
The council, in a similar move to the Islington Council in North London and the Waltham Forest Council in East London, had urged schools to close as of Monday night and switch to online learning during the remainder of the current period, due to rising coronavirus rates in the district.
The latest government figures show that the proportion of children in England’s public schools declined last week.
According to the Department of Education, student attendance in high schools dropped from 81% to 80% on December 10.
About 7% to 9% of state school students, up to 694,000 children, were not in school due to COVID-19-related reasons that day.
More than a quarter (28%) of schools said they had one or more self-isolating students who were told to do so due to possible contact with a coronavirus case within the school, the same proportion as the previous week .
