Covid: Lincoln primary school outbreak closes Year 4 classes

The Westgate Academy in Lincoln has more than 400 students

A primary school has closed all of its Year 4 classes after a coronavirus outbreak infected staff and pupils.

More than 10 students and staff at Westgate Academy, Lincoln, had tested positive by Sunday.

The school has closed the classes for a few days after taking advice from Public Health England.

Head teacher James Kelwick said he was "alarmed" by how quickly the virus had spread despite measures being in place.

Mr Kelwick said Westgate Academy, which has more than 400 students, had measures in place including mask wearing, social distancing and reduced classroom numbers.

"This is not going away. You come to a new academic year full of hope and full of vigour and then this happens," he said.

He said government guidelines leave schools to make decisions on whether to shutdown and the responsibility was "very much up to head teachers".

"That is worrying because as head teachers we're educationalists. We're not virologists, we're not biologists and we're not healthcare professionals and we've got to make a decision that will best prevent the spread of the virus," he said.

New school term, same old tests?

Andy Fox, from Lincolnshire Public Health, said he was not surprised by the outbreak.

"We know that this Delta variant is very transmissible," he said.

"It spreads really quickly and really easily. Thankfully the risk to healthy to children is very, very low and I trust the adults involved are double-vaccinated which should give them plenty of protection."

Mr Fox said that the government's health advice had changed and the "bubble system" had been dropped and the focus was on prioritising education.

He added that anyone in close contact with a Covid case no longer needed to self-isolate unless they developed symptoms or tested positive.