There have been 119 cases of Covid-19 reported to the City of Wolverhampton Council in the last 10 days, including 70 within primary and 37 in secondary schools.
Nationally, more than 100,000 children were absent with confirmed or suspected coronavirus infections in England last week.
With the system of bubbles now scrapped, whole classes or year groups no longer need to self-isolate as a result of a positive case, meaning that schools, children and parents must remain extra vigilant to prevent an outbreak.
To help stop the virus from spreading, secondary school pupils, and all school staff, should take a rapid Covid-19 test, twice a week to identify cases in people without symptoms.
Staff and pupils who return a positive rapid test result must self-isolate and book a confirmatory PCR test by calling 119 or visiting GOV.UK. If the PCR test is taken within two days of the positive rapid test and is negative, they can return to school, as long as they don’t have any symptoms of Covid-19; otherwise they must self-isolate as per Government guidelines.
Anyone with symptoms of Covid-19 must self-isolate and book a PCR test as soon as possible.
People are no longer required to self-isolate if they live in the same household as, or are a close contact of, someone with Covid-19, or if they are below the age of 18-and-a-half, or if they are fully vaccinated or cannot have the vaccine for medical reasons. Instead, they will be contacted by NHS Test and Trace and advised to take a PCR test.
Face coverings should continue to be worn in enclosed and crowded spaces, such as on public and school transport, and people are urged to get their life-saving Covid-19 vaccine as soon as possible, if they are able to.
Councillor Dr Michael Hardacre, the City of Wolverhampton Council's Cabinet Member for Education and Skills, said: "Our schools are working hard to keep Covid-19 cases to a minimum, but it was always inevitable that, as pupils and staff returned, there would be cases of the virus identified.
"I would urge everyone to keep doing all they can to stop the spread of the virus; that means secondary pupils and all school staff getting a rapid test twice a week and everyone taking a PCR test if they develop symptoms of Covid-19, no matter how mild. By doing this, you can help keep the virus out of our schools.”
Latest figures show there were 315.4 new cases of Covid-19 per 100,000 people in Wolverhampton over the last 7 days. That means 830 people tested positive for the virus in that same period – though the true number of new cases will likely be higher.
For details of rapid Covid-19 testing, for people without symptoms of the virus, please visit Coronavirus Testing.
For more details of walk-in clinics where people can get first and second doses of the Covid-19 vaccine, please visit Covid-19 vaccination.
