Schools open / closed - please explain

[bbn81]

So I live in Kirklees, in West Yorkshire. The covid infection rate was at it's lowest in the middle on December when schools were open. The rate dropped dramatically during the November lockdown with schools open. Despite 6 nearly 7 weeks of lockdown and schools closed the rate still hasn't dropped as low as it was in December.

Can any one explain this? It makes me wonder why we are keeping schools closed?

School closures are currently a national issue, not a local one. Posters in Cornwall may be thinking the same thing.

Tiers didn't work very well before Christmas, it all became a bit of a mess.

Just a guess but I would expect it’s due to the Kent variant. Hadn’t reached Yorkshire by November/December but did at Christmas (or thereabouts) and cases rose very quickly after it reached you. It’s very very infectious. Lockdown will have helped but even in lockdown schools have not been “shut” they’ve had key worker and vulnerable kids in, and plenty of adults still going to work, so plenty of opportunities for a very infectious virus to spread.

I don’t think schools have been a huge infection issue all over the country, certainly in some areas they have as the data supports the rise and fall of infection rates of school age children as the schools have been open/closed.

The area I live in has had some of the highest and at times lowest number of cases yet the rate among school age children has always remained steady and one of the least problematic groups.

If your rates are generally low you prob don’t have much community transmitían just the core kind of outbreaks. Care homes, prisons, factories etc which will happen whether or not you in lock down. Schools play a bigger part when community rates are higher. Hence the drive to get rates right down before opening schools again.

Thanks for replying, I can tell you are rates are never low compared with the rest of the country (except for in December) . We have been under household mixing restrictions since August, along with other national measures.

The Kent variant spreading now does make more sense.

And forgot to add OP we had alarming rates of infection and were put into lockdown before others with schools open and our rates dropped to some of the lowest, this time with schools closed they aren’t coming down so quickly and like I said previously, the rate of infection in school aged children is still the same as always.

We have been under household mixing restrictions since August

This part has confused me? I am in the North East and there has been some sort of household mixing restrictions since March has this not been the case everywhere?

The scraping of tiers in generally a good idea. They only pushed the problem to other areas. As idiots traveled about for entertainment. However a tier system for education would probably be a great idea. However people like me in a city would have our kids in school a lot less than country folk. So there would be public outrage. It is a shame though because thousands of kids could be back in school now.

@Bunnybigears

We have been under household mixing restrictions since August

This part has confused me? I am in the North East and there has been some sort of household mixing restrictions since March has this not been the case everywhere?

Apart from Christmas it has been against the rules to meet in gardens or private residences where I live since August. This has not been the case every where and not in most places until tiers were introduced. If you remember extra restrictions were put in place just before Eid and never relaxed where I live.

@Truelymadlydeeplysomeonesmum

The scraping of tiers in generally a good idea. They only pushed the problem to other areas. As idiots traveled about for entertainment. However a tier system for education would probably be a great idea. However people like me in a city would have our kids in school a lot less than country folk. So there would be public outrage. It is a shame though because thousands of kids could be back in school now.

I am also very glad tiers aren't being brought back. When you are on the tougher end of them despite following all rules gets really frustrating.

@bbn81
I’m in Calderdale. Our figures are rising, but Kirklees figures are rising again rapidly and I think it was yesterday I read that they’re the 3rd highest in Yorkshire and it’s all down to the new variant the report said.