Closing schools remains a last resort despite the surge in cases of Covid-19, education secretary John Swinney said today.

Mr Swinney, speaking at today’s meeting of the Scottish Parliament’s Covid-19 Committee, said that the reopening of schools had gone well generally and that maintaining full-time education for pupils remained a top priority.

He told MSPs: “In relation to schools, frankly, the last thing I want to do is to have to close schools. We have gone to a great deal of effort - with the support of staff, local authorities, parents and pupils - to reopen our schools. Generally, that process has gone well.

Background: Scotland bans home visits in bid to keep schools open

Also today: ‘I can’t help but feel let down by the government’

Data: Covid-19 staff and pupil absences in Scotland

”Attendance is high, there is very little evidence of in-school transmission of the virus, it’s minuscule...so I want to make sure that we are able to sustain full-time education for children and young people to the greatest extent possible.”

Coronavirus: Will Scotland have a ‘circuit breaker’?

Mr Swinney, who is also deputy first minister, said that a “circuit breaker” was still being considered but that it remained uncertain what this would entail in practice. With Scottish schools off for between one and two weeks at various points in October, starting from this Friday in some areas, the government could take advantage by temporarily imposing stricter lockdown measures nationwide.

National clinical director Jason Leitch was also asked at today’s committee meeting about a possible circuit breaker.

He said: “A circuit breaker is not the answer. The answer is whole-population measures all the time until we get science to get us out the other end. A circuit breaker would just be a help on the way, potentially.”