GAVIN WILLIAMSON placed the burden of testing pupils for Covid-19 on their parents today, despite union calls for better safeguards.

The Education Secretary said that children returning to school should undergo Covid-19 tests twice a week and that their parents should take their share of responsibility for making them do so.

Mr Williamson said that parents should make their children take regular tests and ensure that they do not “get carried away” when schools reopen in September.

He said he was “absolutely delighted” at the thought of children “once more free to chase a football around, sing in a choir or just hang out with friends.”

In the week up to August 28, 239,585 people tested positive for Covid-19 — up 8 per cent on the previous week.

Hospital admissions due to Covid-19 were up 6.7 per cent, 982 Covid patients were being kept alive by ventilators and 133 people died within 28 days of testing positive, bringing Britain’s total deaths to 132,437.

Mr Williamson said that Britain was now in such a “happy position” thanks to people following government guidelines on protecting themselves and others from Covid-19 infections.

Department for Education (DfE) guidance states that secondary school and college students in England should be tested twice on site on their return, with lateral flow tests carried out between three and five days apart.

Pupils should then continue to test twice weekly at home until the end of September, when the policy will be reviewed.

Mr Williamson’s comments came just days after experts warned that it is “highly likely there will be large levels” of coronavirus infection in schools by the end of September.

Advisers have told the government to plan for this outcome, as it will be uncertain whether the high prevalence might be a result of spread of the virus within schools or in the community.

In a document from the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group, experts said the vaccine rollout — which currently extends only to 16-year-olds and above — will have made “almost no difference” to many pupils.

Currently only 12 to 15-year-olds who are most at risk from Covid or who live with people at risk are eligible to be jabbed.

The warning led to education union leaders saying that current safety requirements, including testing, are not sufficient to prevent a rise in cases.

They called for further protections like “ventilation, air filtration, masks, vaccines and vigilance.”