Covid in Cumbria: Schools demand masks as cases rise

Some secondary schools saw 4,000 coronavirus cases of Covid per 100,000 in the Allerdale council area last week

Some schools in Cumbria have asked pupils to wear face masks again because of rising Covid-19 cases.

Health bosses are reviewing whether to introduce the move across Cumbria, which goes against the national guidelines for England.

County public health director Colin Cox said Cumbria was seeing the highest levels ever, but only among youngsters.

Last week Cumbria County Council urged the siblings of children who test positive for Covid-19 to also isolate.

Schools in west Cumbria have seen the most "significant outbreaks", Mr Cox said.

Last week some secondary schools saw 4,000 coronavirus cases of Covid per 100,000 in the Allerdale council area last week.

It was announced last week siblings of positive children in the county were told to isolate to try to reduce infection rates.

The pupils were told they should also take a PCR test before returning to school.

Colin Cox said Cumbria was seeing the highest levels ever, but only among youngsters

Mr Cox said some Cumbrian schools had reported up to 100 pupils absent because of positive cases and because of that several head teachers had decided to reintroduce face coverings.

Across England the requirement for pupils to wear masks in schools was removed in May.

Mr Cox said at present it was up to head teachers to ask pupils to wear masks but he did not rule out a countywide policy.

He said: "We can easily recommend a change to public health measures where you're seeing transmission.

"There are certainly schools in Cumbria where people have gone back to wearing face coverings in communal areas and classrooms because of the outbreaks we've seen - but we haven't put that in place as standard."

Biggest surge

In the seven days to Sunday cases of Covid-19 continued to increase, with Allerdale seeing 663 cases per 100,000 people, an increase from 529 per 100,000 the previous week.

Transmission rates in school-age children remains the biggest surge, with youngsters in secondary schools aged 12 to 18 accounting for the greatest number of new cases in Cumbria, followed by the five to 11 age group.

The rise in cases does not appear to be having an impact on the numbers of people being admitted to hospital, health chiefs said.

"It's good news the surge of cases is in younger people - and the case rates in older people - are pretty steady or declining," said Mr Cox.

"We're actually seeing new admissions to hospital around 50 to 60 per week so these numbers are not hugely high across the North Cumbria and Morecambe Bay Trusts."