Dr. Camilla Kingdon, President of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, says mass Covid testing in schools is sparking “unnecessary chaos” and should be brought to an end. She also warned children should not be left to “carry the burden” of the pandemic. MailOnline has more.
Schools in England dropped virtually all virus-control measures in July, except twice weekly testing of pupils. Those who get a positive swab must stay home for 10 days.
But amid rising infection rates among youngsters, some schools are quietly reintroducing measures including face masks and telling children to stay home if their sibling has the virus.
It comes as the NHS plans to unveil walk-in vaccine clinics for school children within weeks in an effort to speed up the jabs rollout.
Dr Kingdon railed against the return of more rules in the classroom today, telling the Daily Telegraph that the age group is at very low risk from the virus.
She said: “You are asking completely healthy children to test, with the potential to be excluded (from school), there is just a real concern that we are increasing a level of chaos into the system that is unnecessary.”
Conservative MP for Penistone and Stocksbridge near Sheffield, Miriam Cates, also slammed the tests as “utterly pointless” and “just another example of treating children as second-class citizens”.
She told the newspaper: “In my constituency, absence rates are considerably higher than normal.
“Not all children are actually ill but because they have had a positive test they are not allowed in school for 10 days.
“There is absolutely no reason to continue with mass testing children. All it’s doing is prolonging the disruption and prolonging the fear.”
Worth reading in full.
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