NO SCHOOL THIS MONTH
SCHOOLS IN WALES WON’T REOPEN FROM COVID-19 LOCKDOWN UNTIL AT LEAST EARLY JUNE, SAYS FIRST MINISTER
SOME pupils in Wales could be allowed to return to school next month as part of a phased approach, the First Minister has said, following the strict measures introduced to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.
Mark Drakeford said the earliest point schools could resume would be the beginning of June, with a minimum of three weeks needed to prepare from the time it was decided it is safe for pupils and teachers.
His comments came as:
■ Boris Johnson revealed how doctors had been making preparations to announce his death as he battled coronavirus in hospital;
■ The Welsh Government hit back at criticism over the separate testing policies in Wale and England;
■ The number of deaths with Covid19 in Wales reached 983, a rise of 14 on the previous day’s figures; and
■ The nation’s total confirmed cases rose to 10,329, up 174 in 24 hours.
Yesterday, Mr Drakeford told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show: “Our advice from the trade unions and from the local education authorities is that you will need three weeks as a minimum from the point that we decide to do that, to when schools can reopen, so we are talking about the beginning of June.”
Some groups could return earlier than others, he said, using examples of children with special education needs, Year Six children who are due to move up to secondary school, and Welshmedium pupils who may not have had opportunities to use the language at home during lockdown.
He explained: “We are thinking about ways we can bring young people with special education needs back into education.
“We are thinking about individual year groups. Year Six children in primary schools, children going up to secondary schools this September. We know that is a rite of passage. You do it with your classmates and yet you won’t have seen those friends for six weeks, so can we bring those children back to school earlier?
“We have a bilingual education system here in Wales, children are learning in the medium of Welsh but may not have Welsh spoken at home – do we need to get those children back into education sooner?
“Those are the sorts of things we are working on.”
The First Minister added: “I think of this in a phased way. We’re not going to have all the children back in all the schools on the first day.
“We get those children in whom we have the greatest priority to begin with, we monitor that carefully, we add more children in as we are confident that we can do that safely. Over time, we will get back to something like the normal we were used to.”
Mr Drakeford also said work was under way to make sure social distancing guidance was followed and to persuade parents, teachers and pupils that the school environment was safe, saying “you certainly can’t have schools reopen as they did before”.
He said: “You need social distancing for public health reasons but you also need it in order to persuade parents and teachers that you are asking young people to come back into an environment that is safe for them.
“And that is the other big piece of work we are doing at the moment. You can open anything that you like, but if people don’t think it is safe to go there, then they will vote with their feet.”
Responding to his comments, Eithne Hughes, director of the Association of School and College Leaders Cymru, later called for “caution” against fixing a date for school reopening.
She said: “The First Minister has indicated that schools could reopen at the beginning of June. We would caution against fixing a date in stone at this stage and to make sure the conditions are right first of all.
“We are happy to plan towards a proposed date but we would urge that it is clearly stated from the outset that it is moveable if more time is needed.
“Exactly how this is managed will need to be guided by public health and scientific advice to ensure that pupils, parents and staff can have confidence that it is safe to return to schools.”
Latest figures released yesterday showed the coronavirus death toll in Wales creeping closer to 1,000 – with a rise of 14 deaths yesterday to 983 since the start of the outbreak.
Dr Giri Shankar, incident director for the novel coronavirus outbreak response at Public Health Wales, said: “We seem to have passed the peak and flattened the curve of new cases of novel coronavirus [Covid-19] in Wales, which appears to be an indication of the effectiveness of lockdown measures.
“We are currently working with Welsh Government to determine the best approach for when the lockdown is eventually eased.
“In the meantime, social distancing rules remain in effect. Public Health Wales fully supports Welsh Government’s revised stay-at-home regulations. The message has not changed – anyone can get coronavirus, anyone can spread it. Stay home, protect the NHS and save lives.
“Covid-19 is still circulating in every
part of Wales, and the single most important action we can all take in fighting the virus is to stay at home. We want to thank each and every person across Wales for doing their bit to help slow the spread of the virus.”
Meanwhile, Mr Drakeford rejected the suggestion it was a “mistake” to abandon Wales’s 5,000 tests-a-day target in April, saying: “The feeling I had and the feeling reported to me from people in the front line is that the number itself was a distraction.
“Carrying out tests without a purpose or a point is not a good use of the limited resources that we have.”
The total number of tests conducted fell from 1,438 on Saturday to 1,198 yesterday.
Mr Drakeford also defended the decision not to extend coronavirus testing to all care homes in Wales regardless of whether there is a suspected case.
His comments less than 48 hours after the Welsh Government announced it will test all residents and staff in care homes with outbreaks of coronavirus.
That move followed criticism that the Welsh Government was not going as far as England and extending tests to any staff or resident in a care home who wants one.
But it will still not go as far as the system in England, as a home will still have to have had a case of the virus before residents and staff can be tested.
Plaid Cymru leader Adam Price said: “Why not test staff and residents in every home?
“The Welsh Government says the evidence does not support ‘blanket testing.’ They should publish that evidence swiftly so that it can be scrutinised to see how and why it differs from international evidence and best practice that promotes universal testing of all care home staff and residents.”
A Welsh Government spokesman said the move came after the latest scientific evidence showing testing should be extended to care homes to manage outbreaks.
Health Minister Vaughan Gething said: “Our national testing plan has two main aims – to reduce the harm caused by coronavirus and to help people and professionals get back to their normal daily lives.
“We are learning more about coronavirus every day – the evidence is constantly changing and emerging and we keep it under constant review. At the moment, the evidence does not support the blanket testing of everyone who does not have symptoms.
“But, in a care home setting, where there are some people who have symptoms of coronavirus and others who do not, testing everyone, including those who do not, does have a purpose – we will be doing this to help manage outbreaks.”
Shadow Social Care Minister Janet Finch-Saunders said: “Just two days ago the First Minister said he saw no value in testing everyone in care homes. This U-turn by the Welsh Government is very much welcomed by not just residents and staff in care homes but by their families and loved ones. We urge the Welsh Government to continue their U-turn and expand testing to all care home residents and staff.”
Elsewhere, former leader of the Welsh Conservatives Andrew RT Davies said Wales was “likely to face the brunt of the Covid-19 financial downturn” and called on his Tory colleagues in the UK Government to increase the borrowing limit available to the Welsh Government.
Current restrictions stop the Welsh Government from borrowing money to cover day-to-day spending, including for its response to the Covid-19 outbreak.
The South Wales Central AM wrote in the Sunday Times: “Any rightminded politician could use the facility to demonstrate that Wales is well and truly open for business by investing in key infrastructure projects such as the M4 relief road and Metro systems.”