Why Covid cases will inevitably rise as schools reopen

That's the view of Wiltshire Council's director of public health who, earlier this week, spoke about how schools are going to manage the return of all children.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that all pupils in England will return to the classroom from March 8.

To keep the virus under control, children in secondary schools and colleges will be tested regularly with lateral flow tests to identify asymptomatic cases.

Kate Blackburn, the county's public health boss, has repeatedly said that the best place for children to be for their education and mental wellbeing is in schools.

However, increased testing means more Covid cases will be picked up.

Testing in schools

Students in secondary schools and colleges will initially take three tests in existing school testing facilities before their return in less than two weeks.

After that, they will be provided with two rapid tests to use each week at home.

Kate Blackburn explained: "The children will do three lateral flow tests in schools being observed so they can understand how to do it.

"That will then move to them doing them from home and that will make sure that the educational setting doesn't just become a testing site so the children can do it in the morning before they come to school and what the evidence has shown is that the more you do the testing, the better you get at doing it and the more accurate the result is."

Asked how staff will be able to manage such a high number of tests being carried out each week, Mrs Blackburn said that schools had been planning for the rollout of rapids tests since the third week of December.

"Our education team within the local authority has been working very closely with all of our schools," she said.

"I have been notified from my daughter's school of what the testing routine will be within the school and what the expectations are so I'm confident that all schools will have it in place but I'm in no way underestimating what an enormous ask it is of them."

Kate Blackburn, director of public health for Wiltshire

'Cases will rise'

Due to the rollout of rapid tests identifying infected students displaying no virus symptoms, it is "inevitable" that cases will rise, Mrs Blackburn admitted.

"I think we will see a rise in cases as schools go back, not necessarily because transmission is happening in schools but because asymptomatic cases are being picked up.

"We know from people's behaviour that when children are back in school, behaviour change happens around the school enviroment which can also lead to an increase in transmission.

"We've been very clear on the message that children being back in school is so important that we're really asking everyone to adhere to all the regulations and restrictions to manage that case increase as much as possible."

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