Covid: Manx schools to stay closed to all on Monday as cases rise

Schools were closed to all children, including those of key workers, on Friday

Schools, nurseries and childminders will remain closed to all children on the Isle of Man on Monday, the chief minister said.

The closure was put in place on Friday as part of a "firebreak" to help stem the spread of the virus.

Plans to provide a service for the children of "critical" workers would be put in place from Tuesday, Howard Quayle said.

Details of that provision are due to be released later.

Mr Quayle said places would only be available to the children of essential workers "whose roles are critical to the protection of life or infrastructure".

Education Minister Alex Allinson said the Council of Ministers would "continue working on the detail" of those plans on Sunday to ensure that "schools will remain a safe place for those that need to use them".

In the meantime, the children of essential workers can be looked after by other family members, although they should be prevented from mixing with children from other households wherever possible, a government spokesman said.

Infections have continued to rise steeply since the Isle of Man entered its third lockdown on Wednesday.

Saturday saw the highest daily increase in the island's Covid-19 figures since the start of pandemic with a further 71 cases detected, 20 of whom were children aged between 10 and 14.

That took the total number of active cases to 234, with five patients with the virus being treated in Noble's Hospital.

As of 16:00 GMT on Saturday, a total of 676 people had tested positive for Covid-19 on the island since last March, 25 of whom had died.