MORE PUPILS FORCED TO SELF-ISOLATE AFTER TWO CONFIRMED COVID-19 CASES AT SWINTONS CO-OP ACADEMY

Pupils in year groups 7 & 10 at Co-op Academy in Swinton have been told to stay home and self isolate this morning, after two cases of Covid-19 were confirmed at the school.

Following government guidelines the pupils families were notified and asked to collect their children from the school this morning, whereupon they are now required to self-isolate for 14 days.

This means they are not permitted to leave their homes or mix with other children or members outside of their households. 

This comes after staff from Buile Hill Academy, yesterday revealed that a pupil at their school had also been confirmed as having the virus, which in turn led to their year 7 group having to also self-isolate.

There is no evidence to suggest that any of the children contracted the virus at the schools as they have only been reopened since Wednesday 2nd September when the new school term started. However, following the guidelines set out, all pupils that could have possibly come into contact are now required to stay at home and self-isolate.

This latest development will come as a set-back for local schools which have gone to great lengths to ensure the safety of their pupils, but it should come as no surprise as Salford as recently added to the list of Greater Manchester borough's added into the Governments so called 'Red Zone' after continued increases in local infection rates.

It should be noted that as it stands, there has not been a similar increase in mortality or hospitalisations shown in the current data set, but we should always be mindful that it can often take several weeks for changes to start to show in the statistics.

We urge the whole Salford Community to maintain their social distancing, handwashing and wear face masks when and where possible (If you can).

We would like to wish all the pupils and their families well and hope for a quick and speedy recovery.