British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said that current Covid-19 measures in place in England are likely to get tougher amid a surge in cases, but insisted that schools are safe and children should continue to attend.
Cases of Covid-19 are at record levels and increasing, fuelled by a new and more transmissible variant of the virus. That has already forced the British government to cancel the planned reopening of schools in and around London, with calls from teaching unions for wider closures.
Much of England is already under the toughest level of restriction set out in a four-tier system of regional regulations designed to stop the spread of the virus and protect the NHS.