The government cannot guarantee that schools will remain open as Covid is ‘spreading at a phenomenal rate’

The Health Secretary Sajid Javid has refused to rule out school closures again due to soaring number of Covid cases which has “never been seen before.”

Javid is strongly urging people to work from home if they can and further warned that Omicron cases could exceed one million cases by the end of December.

Asked on LBC whether school closures could still be a possibility, Javid said, “Well, I don’t want to see that or any of these kinds of measures.

“I’m just going to focus on everything else we need to be doing, especially the booster programme.”

He added, “I’d say this… if you are asking me for guarantees, I will just say – as the health secretary, of course, I’m not the education secretary – as the health secretary, that there are, when it comes to our fight against this pandemic, there are no guarantees.

“But what we do know that works is, in this case, a booster shot of the vaccine.”

The government has repeatedly said one of its priorities is keeping schools open, sometimes choosing to enforce stricter measures in other areas to keep children in classrooms.

Javid is also encouraging people to get their booster jabs, he said, “Two doses are not enough but three doses provide excellent protection against symptomatic infection.”

Javid has been urged to adopt more “stringent” measures as a leaked document clearly warns that the government will need to implement more measures before Christmas.