The government has revealed the Covid hostpot areas where primary schools will remain closed for at least two weeks from Monday.

The majority of primary schools will open as planned on Monday 4 January.

But in a small number of areas where the infection rates are highest, only vulnerable pupils and children of critical workers will attend face to face.

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These “contingency framework” areas are as follows:

London

• Barking and Dagenham
• Barnet
• Bexley
• Brent
• Bromley
• Croydon
• Ealing
• Enfield
• Hammersmith and Fulham
• Havering
• Hillingdon
• Hounslow
• Kensington and Chelsea
• Merton
• Newham
• Redbridge
• Richmond-Upon-Thames
• Southwark
• Sutton
• Tower Hamlets
• Waltham Forest
• Wandsworth
• Westminster

Essex

• Brentwood
• Epping Forest
• Castle Point
• Basildon
• Rochford
• Harlow
• Chelmsford
• Braintree
• Maldon
• Southend on Sea
• Thurrock

Kent

• Dartford
• Gravesham
• Sevenoaks
• Medway
• Ashford
• Maidstone
• Tonbridge and Malling
• Tunbridge Wells
• Swale

East Sussex

• Hastings
• Rother

Buckinghamshire

• Milton Keynes

Hertfordshire

• Watford
• Broxbourne
• Hertsmere
• Three Rivers