Around three-quarters of secondary schools in England had one or more pupils off isolating after contact with a confirmed Covid case at their school last week, new figures show.
The latest data, published today by the Department for Education (DfE), reveals that the proportion of secondary schools affected by Covid has increased from 64 per cent on Thursday 12 November to 73 per cent on Thursday 19 November.
And the proportion of all state schools with one or more pupils off as a result of potential contact with a Covid case at their school has risen from 29 per cent to 36 per cent in the same period.
The DfE says that it estimates that 876,000 pupils were off because of Covid-related reasons.
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The new data shows that around a quarter of schools (25 to 27 per cent) had 30 or more pupils self-isolating owing to potential contact with a case of coronavirus inside the school.
This figure has increased for two consecutive weeks. The figure reported was 8 to 9 per cent on 5 November and 18 to 20 per cent on 12 November.
The figures also show attendance has declined again.
The DfE’s data shows that immediately after half-term, attendance was at 89 per cent on 5 November.
Since that point, attendance has decreased for two consecutive weeks from 86 per cent on 12 November, down to 83 per cent on 19 November.
In secondary schools, attendance is down to 78 per cent of pupils.
The DfE said that the decrease in attendance is mainly because of the continued increase in the number of pupils self-isolating after potential contact with a case of Covid-19.
Last week’s data had shown the proportion of schools with one or more pupils off self-isolating because of a coronavirus case had almost doubled in the space of a week.
The data for Thursday 12 November had shown that 29 per cent of state schools had pupils off because of potential contact with a Covid case at their school.
This was up from 16 per cent of state schools the week before.
The proportion of schools with Covid cases has increased week on week since the half-term break.