Covid rates have increased among both primary and secondary school-aged pupils, despite declining for the rest of the country’s adult population, according to the latest official figures.
The highest increase was among younger and primary-aged children. More than one in 10 children between the age of 2 and Year 6 in primary school tested positive for the coronavirus at the end of last week (22 January), the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has revealed.
In this age group, 11.8 per cent of children are estimated to have had the virus on 19 January.
The data shows the rates continuing to rise to more than 13 per cent of this age group by 22 January, but the ONS warned that its estimates after 19 January have greater uncertainty.
The figures also show that 6.5 per cent of secondary school pupils in Years 7-11 tested positive for Covid on 19 January, up from 5 per cent the previous week. Cases started rising again among older students from 13 January, the data shows.
The latest data comes days after Department for Education attendance figures revealed that more than 400,000 pupils are now off school because of Covid, with more than three-quarters of these testing positive for the virus.
Teaching one of most-vaccinated professions
The new ONS figures also include information about vaccination rates.
It reveals that teachers are among the professions most likely to have had three doses of the Covid vaccine.
At the end of last year, 64.9 per cent of adults aged 18-64 years who were employed in England had received three coronavirus vaccinations, while 8.8 per cent were unvaccinated.
Among occupation groups, health professionals (80.4 per cent) and teaching and other educational professionals (76.0 per cent) were most likely to have received three vaccinations.
They were also the least likely to be unvaccinated at 4.2 per cent and 4.8 per cent respectively.
