Covid-related pupil absence in England hits new high
Over 640,000 pupils in England were not in school due to Covid last week - up from 375,000 the week before - a new high since all students returned to school in March this year, the BBC has reported.
Of these, just 62,000 were confirmed or suspected Covid cases.
The DfE figures show the highest number of Covid-related absences since the return to school in March, with 8.5% of children out of school on 1 July, up from 5.1% on 24 June.
The data shows 561,000 children self-isolating due to a possible contact with a Covid-19 case; 34,000 pupils with a suspected case of coronavirus; and 28,000 with a confirmed case of Covid-19. A further 18,200 pupils are out of school due to their school being closed.
This takes the total number of children not in school in England to 641,200.
In primary schools, Covid-related absence was 7.4% on 1 July, up from 4.5% on the previous week.
While in secondary schools - where the data is adjusted for the fact that Year 11s and Year 13s have now finished school - Covid-related absence was 10.4%, up from 6.2% on 24 June.
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