Covid-19 daily briefing: What Boris Johnson said - March 8

Here are the main points.

High uptake in school testing

The majority of secondary schools and colleges in England have seen nearly all their students opt in for on-site coronavirus tests, a survey has suggested.

A snap poll by the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) found 54% reported a take-up of between 90% and 100% for rapid Covid tests.

Nearly a quarter (24%) have seen a take-up of between 80% and 89% while take-up was below 60% in only six per cent of schools, the survey found.

The poll, of more than 700 headteachers in England, suggests nearly three in four (73%) had more than 90% of pupils wear face masks in class.

Some reported lower compliance, with two per cent saying it was below 70%.

Geoff Barton, general secretary of ASCL, said: “We know schools have had to put a great deal of time and effort into obtaining parental consent for on-site Covid tests and that has clearly proved especially difficult in some places.

“Likewise, while most pupils and parents are supporting schools over the thorny issue of face coverings, it appears that some are not doing so.”

Boris Johnson praised parents and teachers as he welcomed the return of millions of children to the classroom in England.

The Prime Minister said the return to schools marked a “big day and an emotional day” for millions of families across England.

He said: “We all know that the education of our children is so important that the greater risk now is keeping them out of school for a day longer.

“I want to thank all the teachers who have got their schools ready and who have been teaching throughout the period – whether that is remotely or in person. Your work has been astonishing.”

Mr Johnson also thanked parents who have been teaching their children at home and said: “We all know that the burden has disproportionately fallen on women – often holding down jobs and providing childcare at the same time.”

He said the Government’s job was to ensure pupils not only catch up on lost learning but “take the biggest possible step forwards with a concerted national programme for educational recovery”.

He added that thanks to the “huge national effort to keep kids at home” the spread of coronavirus has been reduced significantly.

“So, today we’ve been able to take that crucial first step on what we hope is our cautious but irreversible road map to freedom,” Boris Johnson said.

Mr Johnson said more than a third of the UK population have now received a coronavirus vaccine.

He warned the number of patients being admitted to hospital with Covid-19 each day is eight times higher than “the lows of last summer” – it is “more vital than ever” to follow the rules.

Dr Harries said it will “take time” for families to get used to testing children for coronavirus before going to school.

She said: “Children should always be allowed to come into school and it is their right to have an education and it is important for their long-term health and actually their future families’ health.

“I do recognise that for many parents it is quite an unusual ask – before children go off to school to do a swab and a test. It will take time, I think, for families to get used to that.”

She said that one of the reasons why testing has been introduced in a phased way is so that children have three tests in school first in a “supervised way with support” so they know what to expect.

Dr Harries said children would never be forced to have a test but that parents should ask if they are concerned about it.

Fall in deaths and serious illness continues 

Dr Harries said coronavirus cases, hospital admissions and deaths are all continuing to fall.

Dr Harries said infections were now below 100 per 100,000 of population in every part of the country and were back to where they were in September.

“This is a level at which a new wave could easily take off from again,” she said.

She said that deaths were falling faster than other indicators, suggesting the vaccine was having an impact.

She warned, however, that there was still “substantial strain” on the NHS.

Government data up to March 7 shows that of the 23,519,898 jabs given in the UK so far, 22,377,255 were first doses – a rise of 164,143 on the previous day.

Some 1,142,643 were second doses, an increase of 20,241.

Vaccination passports for children 

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said immunity passports raised “all sorts of issues” for those aged under 16, as well as for others who do not receive a coronavirus vaccine.

In response to a question about how vaccine passports could work for under 16s from a member of the public he said: “We’re looking at the way these types of vaccination certificates might work.

“They do raise all sorts of issues for those, like under 16 year olds, who might not have had a vaccination for one reason or another, those who aren’t medically able to get a vaccination, for instance, there are some complexities.

“We’re looking at what they are thinking of in other countries and we’ll be making sure we report back to you, to everybody, as soon as we possibly can.”

A faster route out of lockdown? 

Asked whether he would consider speeding up the easing of lockdown, Boris Johnson said: “Of course I understand the urgency that people feel but we have to be driven by the data, we have to look at the rates of infection.

“Don’t forget they are still very high by the standards of last year – we still have thousands of people in hospital with Covid.

“We have seen, alas, in other European countries that the curve is going up again and we remember frankly what happened every time we’ve seen those upwards curves in our friends and neighbours that it is not too long after that that we see an increase in this country as well.

“We’ve just got to remain prudent and the whole point about this road map is it is intended to be cautious but irreversible and we think we can do that because of the success of the vaccine rollout.

“I think people would really rather trade some urgency and some haste in favour of security and certainty about those dates that we have set out.”

Schools open - but for how long?

Dr Harries played down suggestions schools may be forced to close again if new cases emerge.

She said: “I think we can be very optimistic going forward.

“The testing programme in schools should mean that the likelihood of a case going into a school and then numbers of children having to come out of education to isolate should be very significantly reduced.

“There may be a very short period at the start of this programme where everybody gets used to it and a larger number of children come out of school and then it will settle down.

“It is really important when observing this that people think through the next three to four weeks, not the first one or two.”

She added that while pupils returning to classrooms will have an impact on the R rate, schools will be “inherently safer places” due to increased testing.

Asked about the impact of schools reopening on infection rates, Dr Harries said: “We do expect there to be an impact on R.

“What we do know is, or at least we can’t disentangle, the social interaction element of that rise in R. So, it’s just as likely it’s people meeting at school gates, or the different numbers of social interactions, as much as it is in schools.

“I think the critical point is there are new interventions, so the testing for schools is in place, starting from now and gradually for some senior pupils going forward.

“What that is likely to do is diminish the number of community transmission cases which could come into schools, so schools will be inherently safer places, but equally it will reach back into families.

“So although I suspect we may see a rise at the start, with luck as we go forward and people get used to using that testing whole families will be protected as well.”