Health chief: 'Not clear' teachers get Covid in school

Deputy chief medical officer says it unclear whether teachers get Covid-19 in school or from contacts in their community

27th January 2021, 6:18pm

Catherine Lough

Coronavirus: It Is 'not Clear' Whether Teachers Get Covid In School, Says Deputy Chief Medical Officer Professor Jonathan Van-tam

The government’s deputy chief medical officer has said it is not clear whether teachers become infected with Covid-19 in schools.

Speaking this afternoon at the Downing Street coronavirus briefing following the prime minister’s announcement that he hoped schools could begin to reopen from 8 March, Professor Jonathan Van-Tam said: “Do teachers get Covid-19? Yes. Is it clear that teachers get Covid-19 from children or from each other? No, it is not clear. They could also pick it up in their own lives outside of school.”

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Professor Van-Tam continued: “Do children get Covid-19? Yes. Do children get ill with Covid-19? Very rarely indeed.

“Do children transmit Covid-19? Yes, but it is predominantly a signal towards the upper teenage years; in other words, the more adult-like they become, the greater propensity for them to transmit it to others.

“Is there a clear signal in the data of a markedly increased rate of infection or mortality in teachers? No. But could infected children introduce the infection back in their own households and therefore contribute to R [the rate of infection]? Absolutely, yes.”