England’s Chief Medical Officer is not best pleased
Professor Chris Whitty is said to be “very unhappy” at the planned reopening of schools on March 8th.
The government hope to have kids back in school by this date, when it’s also expected that you will be allowed to meet up with friends and sit on park benches.
Specific details of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s roadmap have not yet been finalised, and will be unveiled on Monday, February 22nd.
Speaking on Thursday, Johnson said: “We’ll be setting out what we can on Monday the 22nd about the way ahead.
“It will be based firmly on a cautious and prudent approach to coming out of lockdown in such a way as to be irreversible.
“I certainly think that we need to go in stages, we need to go cautiously.
“You have to remember from last year that we opened up hospitality fully (it) was one of the last things that we did because there is obviously an extra risk of transmission from hospitality.
“But we’ll be setting it all out on Monday and I know there’s there’s a lot of understandable speculation in the papers.
“I would just advise everybody just wait, you know, we’ll try and save as much as we can.”
Prime Minister Boris Johnson hopes to reopen schools by March 8th at the earliest. (Photo: Getty)However, not everyone is encouraged by the planned reopening of schools – particularly senior figures in the health service.
The Guardian report that Professor Chris Whitty, England’s Chief Medical Officer, is “very unhappy” with the move.
Senior government officials and civil servants have reportedly urged him to back Boris and support the reopening, but Whitty is understood to be less-than-enthusiastic about it.
At best, he is believed to be offering “lukewarm” support only. He is not expected to appear at Monday’s press briefing.
On Friday, the UK’s biggest education unions released a joint statement in which caution was urged regarding the reopening of schools.
Unions are concerned that reopening schools too quickly could lead to another spike in cases of coronavirus.
The statement read: “This would seem a reckless course of action. It could trigger another spike in Covid infections, prolong the disruption of education and risk throwing away the hard-won progress made in suppressing the virus over the course of the latest lockdown.”
The nine unions behind the statement include the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), the NAHT school leaders’ union, the National Education Union (NEU), the NASUWT teachers’ union, the National Governance Association (NGA) and the Sixth Form Colleges Association (SFCA).
Three of the UK’s largest trade unions – Unison, Unite and GMB – were also involved.
