03 January,2022 08:23 AM IST | London | Agencies
A medic administers the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine to a child in the Cypriot capital Nicosia on Sunday as the country begins to vaccinate kids between the ages of 5 and 11. Pic/AFP
Secondary school students in England will be required to wear face coverings in classrooms amid the spread of the Omicron variant of COVID-19, the UK government said on Sunday.
The rules, which bring England in line with other parts of the United Kingdom, are to be brought in on a temporary basis in time for students to return to classrooms after the Christmas holidays next week.
Pupils are also being asked to take part in on-site rapid COVID tests and to get their vaccines, if due, before the start of the new term.
"The Prime Minister [Boris Johnson] and I have been clear that education is our number one priority. These measures will bolster our support to schools as we do everything in our power to minimise disruption," said UK Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi.
"There is no doubt that the Omicron variant presents challenges but the entire education sector has responded with a Herculean effort, and for that I thank each and every one of you," he said.
The classroom rule, which does not include teachers, will apply until a review planned for January 26.
French authorities had announced Saturday that children six and older will have to wear masks in indoor places open to the public as new cases of the highly contagious omicron variant surged past 200,000 for the fourth consecutive day.
The British government also announced it would make 7,000 air cleaning units available to schools and colleges as part of efforts to tackle the spread of Omicron.
US President Joe Biden cannot require teachers in the Head Start early education program to be vaccinated against COVID-19, a Louisiana federal judge ruled Saturday, handing a victory to 24 states that had sued the federal government. US District Judge Terry Doughty wrote that the Biden administration unlawfully bypassed Congress when ordering that workers in Head Start programs be vaccinated by January 31 and that students 2 years or older be masked when indoors or when in close contact outdoors. Head Start is a federally funded program that promotes education for children under the age of 6 who are from low-income families.
The cumulative number of COVID-19 cases in France on Saturday surpassed the 10 million mark, with 2,19,126 new cases detected in the past 24 hours. According to the French government and the Public Health Agency, France has registered a total of 10,191,926 infections with coronavirus since the beginning of the pandemic in the country. It is the fourth consecutive day that France reported a daily count of over 2,00,000 COVID-19 cases.
A research station of Belgium in Antarctica has been hit by an outbreak of Covid-19, even after workers were being fully vaccinated. Since December 14, at least 16 of the 25 workers at the Princess Elisabeth Polar Station have caught the virus, the BBC reported.
6,48,672 No. of new cases reported globally in the past 24 hours
28,93,78,938 Total no. of cases worldwide
54,42,113 Total no. of deaths worldwide
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