SIS) suggests a significant reduction in the percentage of secondary school pupils and staff testing positive for COVID-19 infection since schools reopened compared to last November.
The fourth round of the
SIS – research jointly led by Public Health England (
PHE), the Office for National Statistics (
ONS) and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (
LSHTM) – tested 7,271 secondary school pupils and 2,744 staff for COVID-19 infection between 15 and 31 March.
The results suggest infections fell significantly among both staff and pupils compared to previous findings in November and December 2020.
The latest study, which looked at schools from across 14 participating local authorities, found that 0.34% of secondary school pupils tested positive for current infection (95% confidence interval: 0.16% to 0.63%) and 0.19% of secondary school staff tested positive for current infection (95% confidence interval: 0.04% to 0.58%).