Public Health England has published new data, demanded by teachers and staff unions, on outbreaks of the new variant, which revealed that the Delta Variant could be spreading across educational institutions faster than we know.
“The new data, covering 26 April to 30 May, showed the number of Delta variant infections in schools or other educational settings rising rapidly throughout the period, with a total of 140 incidents,” The Guardian reported.
However, Dr William Welfare, deputy director of health protection at Public Health England (PHE), said, “We have seen a slight increase over recent weeks.
“The latest PHE data suggest that there have been 97 confirmed Covid-19 outbreaks in primary and secondary schools that have had at least one variant case linked to them over the most recent four-week period. This represents around one in 250 schools.
“Public Health England’s health protection teams continue to work with local authorities and schools to carry out surveillance of Covid-19 cases in schools to understand and reduce transmission in these settings,” he said.
Until the last week of May, the number of the Delta variant cases in primary and secondary schools has risen from just three at the end of April to 39.
“The combined number of outbreaks and clusters of all variants has also grown at pace, from 24 at the end of April to 93 by the end of last month,” said a report from the Guardian.
