UK coronavirus live: Tory backlash grows over England’s new tier restrictions | UK news

Meanwhile, another member of SAGE Epidemiologist Dr Michael Tildesley said “there is no strong evidence whatsoever of large-scale spread in schools”.

Tildesley noted that Tier 3 regions had seen an increase in cases in schools but, as the measures in those areas kicked in, “those had started to come down”.

He told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: “It is very, very clear that, yes, there are cases in schools and there are children isolating, but there is no strong evidence whatsoever of large-scale spread in schools.

He added: “We are not seeing cases in schools are leading to a spillover to cases in the community.

“In fact, there is slightly weak evidence admittedly that it is actually the other way around, where we are seeing more cases in the community leading to cases in schools.

“To me, there really isn’t strong evidence that schools staying open represent a strong risk to society in terms of a rise in infections. It is more important, in my opinion, for children’s educational needs.”

He noted that children have already been out of school for a long period and we “don’t want to exacerbate that” by closing schools now when the evidence in terms of risk is very weak.

Despite the government’s promises of a review of tiers and easing of restrictions a member of the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) has said there is limited scope for easing coronavirus restrictions in England before Christmas.

Prof John Edmunds said they will have had little chance to assess how well the new tiered controls are working when they come up for the first 14-day review in mid-December.

“I think that is quite an early time to be able to see what the effect has been. I think we will still be seeing the effect of the lockdown at that point in time,” he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

“For me, I think that is quite an early review stage. I can’t imagine there will be huge changes at that point just simply because I don’t think we will have accumulated much data by then.”

Jenrick has said the tiered restrictions in England are designed to see the country through until a vaccine becomes available.

“The point of the tiered approach is: can we get tiers that are sufficiently robust to steer the country through the last few months before we manage to get the vaccine programme rolled out,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

Jenrick said families would have to make their own decisions as to whether they hug elderly relatives over Christmas.

“It is very hard not to come together with your kids and grandparents and not want to have a loving family Christmas. That is a matter of a personal decision for individual families,” he said.

“I suspect some families will conclude they want to do things differently this year than they have in the past.”