Parents must ‘control their teenagers’ to stop spread of coronavirus
Parents must ‘control their teenagers’ in the battle against coronavirus, England’s deputy chief medical officer has warned.
When questioned on claims that Leciester’s ‘unusually high’ Covid-19 rate in children helped spur the local lockdown – including school closures – Dr Jenny Harries insisted the situation was instead down to ‘community transmission’.
Speaking at a government Downing Street press conference on Thursday, she said schools were a ‘controlled environment’ but parents must keep a watch over young people when it comes to social gatherings.
She said: ‘The original guidance recognised that the transmission risks were potentially more in the social behaviours of the teenagers – the older children out of school – than they potentially were in school.
‘School is quite a controlled environment and perhaps trying to encourage families as well – I know it is difficult because I’ve been there – but to try and control their teenagers in their social interactions outside of school as well.’
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It comes as Public Health England (PHE) reveals that the proportion of people aged under 19 testing positive for the virus in the city had risen from 5% in mid-May to a current level of around 15%.
Education Secretary Gavin Williamson agreed the rise in cases in Leicester was ‘not something about schools returning’.
He added that the school attended by his two teenage daughters had more control over them than he has ‘ever been able to achieve’.
The minister has admitted he cannot promise that some schools will not be shut down in local lockdowns if England is hit by a second wave of coronavirus in winter.
However, he claimed the government had a ‘clear continuity of education plans’ if this were to happen.
Denying claims that children will be taught a ‘watered-down curriculum’ when they return in September, he insisted that every child’s ‘hopes and dreams for the future’ would not be ‘knocked off course’.
At the Downing Street press conference, he said: ‘It is going to be a full and total curriculum that is going to be delivered for our children across all subjects.
‘It’s incredibly important that we have the same standards and rigour across our education system as we come out of lockdown as we had going into it.
‘We are not going to be in a situation where we see vital subjects cut out of children’s education.
‘So, the idea that there will be a watered-down curriculum is totally, totally untrue.’
Mr Williamson added that he wanted breakfast and after-school clubs to resume, despite coronavirus guidance aimed at preventing children from different year groups mixing.
He said: ‘We recognise how vital these breakfast clubs are, the wraparound care and provision are, for children, for parents, for families and whole communities.
‘That’s why we have been issuing guidance to guide schools to be able to make sure they make this available for parents, for children, because we have all seen with our own children how much they benefit from them.
‘We want to see these opening alongside the full opening of schools in September and we are also going to be ensuring that the many activities that often take place on school premises during the summer holidays are going to be taking place.
‘We have been sharing that guidance with schools so they can benefit from that as well.’
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