A SCHOOL has put a partial closure in place this week due to the number of staff having to self-isolate. 

Cottingley Village Primary School said its nursery is moving to remote learning all week. 

A note on Bradford Council's emergency school closures notification system says: "This is to support the capacity of keeping the school open due to the number of staff who are having to isolate."

It comes on 'Freedom Day' which sees the lifting of most coronavirus restrictions in England.

Vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi said he was “confident” the Government was “doing the right thing”.

He told Sky News: “We have to be careful, we have to remain vigilant.

“Our border controls remain in place, our expectation and recommendation that people in crowded places continue to wear masks and take both personal and corporate responsibility, and it is great to see TfL and others doing that.

“It is a step forward, an important step forward – there is no perfect time to take this step, this is as good a time as any as (Professor) Chris Whitty has said, with the summer holidays and schools being out, which will hopefully bear down on the R number, the transition rate.

“So, I’m confident that we are doing the right thing.

“I think the vaccination programme has allowed us to take this step, to take it cautiously with this wall of protection among adults in the United Kingdom.”

Mr Zahawi suggested there would be no changes to the NHS Covid app’s sensitivity after calls for it to be dialled down amid a shortage of staff in some sectors.

Asked what could be done to change the app, the vaccines minister told Sky News: “I think the right thing to do is to continue to clinically advise people, with that sensitivity, that they have come into contact with people who have tested positive.

“The difference now so that we’ve got almost 88% of people with one dose and 68% of people with two doses, so we can take decisions like we’ve just done with NHS and social care staff, we can make decisions that on August 16 anyone who is double vaccinated doesn’t need to then isolate if they are pinged and don’t test positive for Covid.

“Those changes are happening because of the vaccination programme.”

An update on vaccinating children against coronavirus will be given to MPs on Monday, the vaccines minister also confirmed.

Mr Zahawi told Sky News: “The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) have just delivered their advice, we’ll consider it.

“In fact, after my morning round, we have the Covid O (committee) and then I’ll deliver a statement to Parliament.

“But suffice to say they have looked very closely, especially at children who are more vulnerable to serious infection from Covid, children who live with adults who are more vulnerable to serious infection from Covid and, of course, 17-year-olds who are close to becoming 18 – so three months from their 18th birthday – and we will take that advice before I make a statement to Parliament later today.”

Pressed on why the Government was not looking to jab all children, Mr Zahawi added: “The JCVI are continuing to review that. There is new emerging data of children vaccinated in America and elsewhere with a first dose, not yet enough data with a second dose, so they want to look at all the data.”

The minister said there had been cases of inflammation of the heart in some children who had received the vaccine, adding: “On balance, I think the JCVI are coming down on the side of continuing to review all children, healthy children, but wanting to protect the vulnerable children first.”