UK Prime Minister Refuses To Set Timetable For School Reopening

LONDON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 25th January, 2021) UK Prime Minister refused on Monday to say when schools will reopen in England, amid growing pressure from lawmakers from the ruling Conservative Party to have children back to classes before the end of February.

"I understand why people want to get a timetable from me today, what I can tell you is we'll tell you, tell parents, tell teachers as much as we can as soon as we can," Johnson told reporters during a visit to COVID-19 mass vaccination site in north London.

Conservative lawmaker Robert Halfon, who chairs the parliamentary education Committee, wrote on Monday on Twitter that he had asked the Speaker of the House of Commons to summon a government minister to get clarity on the issue, and urged the government to draw a "route map" to get children learning again at school.

Pressed by the reporters, Johnson repeatedly refused to give a clear answer and only conceded that schools will be a priority when the government assesses the potential of relaxing some of the current lockdown restrictions by mid-February.

"Schools obviously will be a priority but I don't think anybody would want to see the restrictions lifted so quickly whilst the rate of infection is still very high, so as to lead to another great spread of an infection," he said.

The prime minister stressed that any decision on both reopening schools and easing restrictions will take into account the rate of infection and the success of the COVID-19 vaccination program.

"Don't forget this country has made huge progress in reducing infection, I don't think people want to see another big surge in infection," Johnson said.

As of Sunday, the UK had recorded over 3,6 million COVID-19 positive cases and 97,939 deaths, with official data also showing that 6,3 million doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech and AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccines have been handed so far.