Coronavirus: London nurseries forced to close as staff hospitalised and the new variant spreads
Nicole Weinstein
Monday, January 18, 2021
Four members of staff have been hospitalised with Covid-19 from London's largest group of social enterprise nurseries, and more than a third of its settings have been forced to close.
There have been 48 positive cases at the London Early Years Foundation just this month.
The new Covid-19 variant is ‘spreading like wildfire’ among staff at LEYF's nurseries, CEO June O’Sullivan said, with 22 positive cases in one week at one nursery and 16 positive cases across eight sites in one weekend alone.
Since the start of 2021, 14 out of 39 LEYF nurseries have closed to allow staff to self-isolate – and many more are set to follow, the nursery group warns.
Following the news about the nursery closures, Ms O’Sullivan tweeted this morning (18 January), ’16 cases of Covid19 across 8 @LEYFonline sites in one weekend - 48 cases this year (and counting), including four staff in hospital. What was the DfE @educationgovuk saying about nurseries being low risk???’
LEYF warns that parents and essential workers across London risk not being able to access childcare during the new wave of the pandemic, as nurseries are being forced to shut because staff are off sick due to the virus or need to self-isolate.
But it also warns that staff are putting themselves at risk to care for other people’s children and that society has a ‘duty of care’ towards them.
Ms O’Sullivan said it was a further ‘discriminatory blow’ to the sector that private and voluntary early years providers will have to access Covid-19 testing through the NHS community testing programme, rather than be sent home test kits, unlike maintained nurseries and schools,
Ms O’Sullivan, who has been campaigning for the Government to vaccinate all nursery and childcare workers as part of the Government’s list of 13.2 million ‘priority’ people, and for home testing kits, said, ‘This is a national scandal and totally disgraceful and discriminatory for the early years sector.
'In order for nurseries to continue functioning and provide a "lifeline of childcare" to many front-line staff and a place of refuge to vulnerable children, ministers must provide a level playing field when it comes to Covid-19 testing and also prioritise the early years after society's most vulnerable groups and NHS workers have been given the jab.
‘Many of our staff are aged over 50 (including those from BAME communities) which makes testing and their vaccinations even more pertinent. The latest reports are that coronavirus vaccines are being thrown away because people are not keeping appointments, it’s absurd that vaccines are maybe going to waste when they could help save the early years sector.’
