England’s secondary school pupils to wear classroom masks in fight against Omicron but more restrictions ‘last resort’

England was the only one of the four UK nations where classroom face masks not previously recommended; some remote lessons still expected

Schools and health service under strain as staff fall sick and/or self-isolate; nearly one in ten health workers were said to be absent on Friday

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Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson with a children’s choir during a ceremony to switch on Christmas tree lights in London last month. His government has now announced secondary school pupils will have to wear face masks in classrooms when they return to school this week. Photo: AP

Published: 8:19pm, 2 Jan 2022Updated: 8:23pm, 2 Jan 2022

Children in secondary schools in England will be told to wear face coverings when they return after the Christmas holiday this week to tackle a surge in cases of the Omicron variant of Covid-19, Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi said on Sunday.

“We want to maximise the number of children in school and college for the maximum amount of time,” he said in an article in The Sunday Telegraph.

“One of the additional, temporary measures that will help achieve this in light of the omicron surge is recommending face coverings are worn in secondary school classrooms and teaching spaces for the coming weeks, although not for longer than they are needed.”

People wearing face masks walk past a mural of a nurse in the centre of Manchester, England, in November 2021. Photo: Reuters

England was the only one of the four UK nations where face coverings were not previously recommended in the classroom.

With daily infection numbers at record highs and people who test positive required to isolate for at least seven days, schools and other public services are facing disruption from staff shortages.

The government has asked public sector managers to prepare for a worst-case scenario of 25 per cent of staff absent in the weeks ahead.

A patient is comforted in hospital in Blackburn, north-west England, in 2020. The UK’s health service is said to be struggling to cope amid a surge in Covid-19 cases. File photo: AFP

Zahawi said some remote learning would be necessary given the number of pupils and teachers who would have to self-isolate.