Schools will be safe, Johnson tells British parents

The UK prime minister has strongly urged parents to send their children back to school when classes resume after an almost half-year hiatus caused by the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Boris Johnson said a return to class will pose no real health risk, while a lack of schooling would threaten an entire generation.

The country's four chief medical officers, who represent England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, shared a similar message in a joint statement.

Schools in Scotland have been open for some time, while those in Northern Ireland resumed on Monday, and lessons in England and Wales will start again in early September.

Johnson said: "I have previously spoken about the moral duty to reopen schools to all pupils safely. We have always been guided by our scientific and medical experts, and we now know far more about the coronavirus than we did earlier this year."

He also said: "The risk of contracting COVID-19 in school is very small, and it is far more damaging for a child's development and their health and wellbeing to be away from school any longer."

Safety concerns

His statement came after teaching unions raised concerns that schools could become a breeding ground for the virus.

His assurances were backed up by a Public Health England study that shows only 70 children and 128 staff were infected with the coronavirus among the more than 1 million children who attended partially reopened schools during June. The results showed they were more likely to have caught the virus at home, said Jenny Harries, England's deputy chief medical officer.

She said on the BBC's Breakfast program that the study should "reassure" parents and teachers.

While concern about the safety of schools has been a hot topic recently, so too has the risk posed by illegal house parties, something that has prompted the government to give police forces the power to fine organizers up to 10,000 pounds ($13,000) starting on Friday.

The BBC quoted Home Secretary Priti Patel as saying: "These gatherings are dangerous and those who organize them show a blatant disregard for the safety of others."

The parties have proliferated as a result of nightclubs and music festivals remaining outlawed as part of the UK's lockdown, something that has made such venues among the hardest hit by the pandemic.

Travel operators also continue to suffer, with The Guardian newspaper reporting that the Association of British Travel Agents, or Abta, is bracing for many more job losses in addition to the 39,000 the industry has already endured.

Abta, which says 18 percent of UK jobs have already been lost, is calling on the government to extend its furlough program, which ensures workers who cannot safely do their jobs get 80 percent of their salaries, up to a maximum of 2,500 pounds a month.

The program has supported around 9 million workers but is due to end in October.

Abta said more than 90,000 jobs in the travel sector have been impacted, and 78 percent of businesses anticipate job cuts.

It also wants more testing at airports and tax cuts for the industry.

Mark Tanzer, Abta's chief executive, told The Guardian: "Sadly, businesses continue to be adversely affected and jobs are being lost at an alarming rate."

The paper added that job losses, which have been especially heavy in the retail and manufacturing sectors, threaten to widen England's north-south divide because they have been heavier in the North.