Coronavirus: Quarantine

(asked on 23rd June 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions he has had with the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies on the effectiveness of whole class covid-19 quarantine.


Answered by
Nick Gibb Portrait
Nick Gibb
This question was answered on 2nd July 2021

The Department regularly considers advice from a number of different sources, including the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), Public Health England (PHE), and the Joint Biosecurity Centre to ensure policies are guided by the most up to date scientific evidence.

The scientific evidence papers from SAGE meetings are published in tranches and are available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/scientific-evidence-supporting-the-government-response-to-coronavirus-covid-19.

The Children’s Task and Finish Working Group, established by SAGE, provides consolidated scientific health advice to the Government. Advice from this group is used by the Department to understand the impacts of infection control measures in schools.

Alongside the March 2021 announcement of the full return to school, the Department published the following evidence summary: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/963639/DfE_Evidence_summary_COVID-19_-_children__young_people_and_education_settings.pdf.

The decision on the length of time required for self-isolation following identification of a positive case is based on the latest public health advice received from PHE. Policy is subject to continuous review, and the Department will continue to work with colleagues in PHE and other relevant bodies to determine whether any changes to self-isolation policy are appropriate as soon as the public health advice allows.

An ongoing study led by PHE and NHS Test and Trace will help increase understanding of how effective daily contact testing could be for people who are contacts of positive COVID-19 cases. It could be used as an alternative to self-isolation.

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