Sadiq Khan is urging the government to consider asking London's schools and colleges to close early and reopen later in January because of "significant" coronavirus outbreaks among 10 to 19-year-olds.
In a letter to the prime minister, the mayor of London said "urgent consideration must... be given to closing secondary schools, sixth form and FE colleges a few days early and keeping them closed for longer after Christmas".
The mayor said the recent spike in COVID-19 cases across the capital was "deeply concerning" and needs further government action.
He wrote to Boris Johnsonon Sunday requesting regular testing for people unable to work from home, as well as for students and staff at secondary schools and colleges.
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He said face coverings should be made mandatory in busy outdoor public spaces because of the Christmas increase in shoppers.
Image:Sadiq Khan says face coverings should be mandatory in busy outdoor spaces
"The surge in coronavirus cases across our capital is deeply concerning," Mr Khan said.
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"I am calling on the government to urgently provide additional support to get the spread under control, save lives and livelihoods and ensure our NHS is not overwhelmed this winter."
He added: "Increased testing is key to this, which is why I want to see regular asymptomatic testing extended to all those unable to work from home and to students and staff at London's secondary schools, sixth-form college and FE (further education) colleges."
Mr Khan suggested that all schools and colleges should be given "priority testing".
He also warned that moving London from Tier 2 to Tier 3 would have a "catastrophic" economic impact on businesses, putting "hundreds of thousands of livelihoods at stake".
The government review of all England's tiers takes place on 16 December.
Mr Khan also asked the prime minister for a business compensation scheme to be put in place for lost income during the Christmas period.
Image:Mr Khan says schools and colleges should be given 'priority testing'
He said the current support was "insufficient" to support many businesses and the self-employed.
"Time is running out to get the virus under control in our city which is why I urge the government to heed my call and provide us with the extra support we desperately need," Mr Khan said.
The latest data by Public Health England showed there was an increase in COVID-19 case rates in every borough of London in the seven days to 9 December.
There were also 17 boroughs where the seven-day rate exceeded 200 cases per 100,000 people.
Latest figures show that the borough of Havering has the highest coronavirus rate in London, with 1,314 new cases recorded in the seven days to 9 December.
Schools in Greenwich, South East London will shut early ahead of Christmas, council chiefs have announcedCredit: Getty Images - Getty
Across the UK, another 18,447 people have tested positive for the deadly bug overnight
The Mayor of London is now calling for all schools across 32 boroughs to shut as the city teeters on the brink of moving into Tier 3 this week.
It would force hundreds of thousands of pupils to study online and comes after Education Secretary Gavin Williamson's vowed to keep kids in school.
Mr Khan will brief London MPs on the latest figures, which show that the infection is now doubling every four days in the city.
The Mayor's spokesman said: “The mayor is backing the early closure of schools and would like the Government to consider shutting schools from Tuesday.
"He wants tomorrow (Monday) to be the last day at school.”
Greenwich council leader Danny Thorpe said yesterday Public Health England had advised the authority to shut all 133 schools as Covid cases were "escalating extremely quickly".
CLASSROOM SHUTDOWN
They are set to close today, instead of Thursday, and move classes online for the final three days of term, except for the children of key workers.
Cllr Thorpe said: “We have the highest rates of infection since March.
"I’m asking for this to reduce the risk of transmission.”
He said breakfast boxes and free school meals would still be available to those who were eligible.
Greenwich in South East London would be the first borough to shut all schools since the first lockdown.
And it comes just days after the Government revealed it could force schools to remain open by applying for a High Court injunction.
In an open letter, Cllr Thorpe said the risk was "extreme".
"The situation in Greenwich in relation to Covid-19 is now escalating extremely quickly," he said.
"I have today been briefed by colleagues from Public Health England that the pandemic in Greenwich is now showing signs that we are in a period of exponential growth that demands immediate action.
"We now have the highest rates of infection in Greenwich than at any time since March.
"For these reasons, I have therefore asked all schools in Greenwich to close their premises from Monday evening and move to online learning for the duration of the term, with the exception of key worker children and those with specific needs (exactly the same as in the first lockdown)."
Sadiq Khan wants all schools in London to close today for Christmas holidays
Council chiefs in Greenwich urge parents not to kick off Christmas early
Cllr Thorpe said the risk is 'extreme'
And in a separate message to headteachers, the official said: "I’m sorry to disturb a weekend, but frankly I know they almost seem a thing of the past given how hard you are working.
"I’ve had a number of conversations with heads over the last week and I know how difficult things have been, especially the last week.
"It has become clear in the last few days that rates of Covid-19 are rising extremely rapidly, both within Greenwich and across London.
"The latest data seems to suggest the rate of infection is doubling in the city every four days."
New powers introduced through the Coronavirus Act allow the Government to issue 'directions' to headteachers around education provision during the pandemic.
Should schools fail to comply after being directed to remain open, Gavin Williamson can apply for a High Court injunction forcing them to do so.
It is understood that directions under the act would only be used as a last resort, while a court order would be sought if they were not followed.
A spokesperson for the Department for Education said tonight: “It is a national priority to keep education settings open full time and it is vital that children remain in school until the end of the term.
“Schools, colleges and early years settings across the country have worked tremendously hard to put protective measures in place that are helping reduce the risk of the virus being transmitted.
"Our regional school commissioner teams continue to support local authorities and school trusts to remain open and help resolve any operational issues.”
The Government will work with Greenwich council in a bid to keep schools open - and officials say that it's their "strong expectation" that all schools enable full-time attendance.
But there are concerns Greenwich councillor's decision could pave the way for other areas to shut schools.
Covid-19 case rates are rising in two-thirds of all local areas in England, the latest data shows - with soaring rates in every borough of the capital.
It is vital that children remain in school until the end of the term.
Department for Education
The London borough of Havering now has the fifth highest rate of new cases in the country.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock is now thought to be considering shifting the hardest hit parts of London into Tier 3 - while leaving the centre in Tier 2.
That would allow pubs and restaurants in the West End to keep their doors open during one of their busiest times of the year.
Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove is reportedly one of the MPs who have suggested that only the London boroughs that have the highest infection rates - on the outskirts of the city - should be placed in Tier 3.
They say putting all of London in Tier 3 will cause a £3billion catastrophic hit to the economy.
The worst affected areas of the capital are in the east, including Walthamstow, Redbridge, Newham and Barking.
Nationally, Swale in Kent continues to have the highest rate in England, with 630.3 cases per 100,000 people.
Medway, also in Kent, has the second highest rate, while Basildon in Essex is in third place.
Burnley and South Tyneside are the north's Covid hotspots.
In an abrupt change, places including Greater Manchester and Blackburn with Darwen have dropped out of the list altogether - suggesting that tough Tier 3 measures could be working.
Swale and Medway in Kent are now the country's hardest-hit, with more than 600 cases per 100,000 people.
The Government considers quarantine measures for travellers arriving in the UK when cases rise above 20 per 100,000 people.
Basildon in Essex is in third place. The rate in the town has risen sharply from 372.9 to 613.8 per 100,000 within just a week, with 1,149 new cases.
Havering is London's worst-hit borough, coming in fifth place with a rate of 506.3.
Just weeks ago, no area of the capital was in the top 50.
However, Redbridge, Barking and Dagenham, Waltham Forest, Enfield, Newham, Tower Hamlets, Bexley, Merton, Bromley, Kingston upon Thames, Greenwich and Haringey are now areas where coronavirus is spiking.
It comes amid suggestions London could be carved up into different tiers
Manchester has had just three weeks without restrictions since lockdown began - and this week protesters gathered to show their angerCredit: Mercury Press
Covid rates have remained stubbornly high, despite England's national lockdown
Labour-run council leader Danny Thorpe said in a statement Public Health England had advised the authority to shut all 133 schools as Covid cases were "escalating extremely quickly".
In an open letter, Cllr Thorpe said the risk was "extreme".
But spokesperson for the Department for Education said tonight it's their "strong expectation" that all schools enable full-time attendance.
However, places which were previously badly-hit - likeBlackburn with Darwen - are now out of the top 50 altogetherCredit: PA:Press Association
There are concerns that Christmas shopping could cause cases to rise Credit: BPM Media
It comes ahead of a Government review of the new tier system
Health Secretary Matt Hancock is now thought to be considering shifting the hardest hit parts of London into Tier 3 - while leaving the centre in Tier 2.
That would allow pubs and restaurants in the West End to keep their doors open during one of their busiest times of the year.
Meanwhile, people in Manchester are hoping the region will finally step down a tier after a drop in cases. The area has had just three weeks of looser restrictions since the first lockdown.
The latest figures show there were 153.4 positive tests in Greater Manchester for the week ending December 9 for every 100,000 people in the local population, down 7.7 per cent compared to the week before.
It puts the region significantly lower than the infection rate for England, which has risen by 15 per cent to 172.8 over the same period.
By comparison, the infection rate for London rose 40 per cent during the same week to 241.5.
But the picture is bleak nationally, with Covid-19 case rates rising in two-thirds of all local areas in England.
Across the UK, another 18,447 cases were diagnosed overnight as rates remain stubbornly high, while another 144 people lost their lives.
Here's why my fellow Germans DO want a Brexit deal: The editor of Germany's biggest newspaper Bild argues that his country would love to see an EU trade deal with UK
What happened yesterday regarding the Brexit talks was reminiscent of the Battle of Waterloo – at least the version taught in my German school.
The French had Britain on the brink of defeat, when Prussian troops stormed in and reprieved them.
Chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier – a former foreign minister of France, don’t forget – and his francophone troops were ready to declare all further negotiations futile and walk away when Germany’s EU ambassador relayed a message from Berlin.
Alexander Von Schoenburg (pictured), editor-at-large of Germany's biggest-selling newspaper Bild
Our foreign minister Heiko Maas insisted it was time to end the doctrinaire approach and ‘start looking for a political solution’. If that meant talks had to go on beyond Sunday night, then so be it. As we have seen, his intervention proved decisive.
At around the same time, a press conference was taking place at Germany’s Bundeskanzleramt, the Chancellery.
It was designed to be solely devoted to explaining Germany’s new Covid measures but one journalist asked whether the Chancellor Angela Merkel was in favour of the Brexit negotiations continuing.
She replied: ‘One should try everything that is possible to reach an agreement.’
That word ‘everything’ highlights the difference between the German and the French positions.
From the very beginning of the Brexit talks, there have been two schools of thought prevailing on the continent. Pictured: Prime Minister Boris Johnson with EU's chief negotiator Michel Barnier and EU chief Ursula von der Leyen in Brussels
From the very beginning of the Brexit talks, there have been two schools of thought prevailing on the continent.
The German approach has always been to offer Britain a tailor-made deal that is more favourable than the one reached with Norway, or even with Switzerland.
The argument being that the size of Britain’s economy justifies a more delicate approach. Contentious areas could be sidestepped via extended transitional periods.
The second school of thought, favoured by those in the Francophone block, argued the outcome had to be so detrimental to Britain that no other member state would ever again dare go down the road of secession. In short, Britain needed to be punished.
The running gag in Brussels was that whenever the French anti-secessionist general Michel Barnier was away and non-French-speaking civil servants were running the show, negotiations were constructive. When he had to leave the negotiating table and self-isolate after a colleague contracted Covid, for example, there are said to have been a few minor breakthroughs.
But when he returned to the negotiating table, the tone of the talks turned distinctly hostile, thanks to Barnier’s insistence that the UK must abide by EU regulatory changes made after it leaves the bloc.
Germany, of course, has much more to lose from a No Deal conclusion than France.
Last year we exported €80billion (£73billion) of goods and services to the UK – which is the world’s biggest buyer of German cars, accounting for almost one in five of our motoring exports. Volkswagen alone sold 200,000 cars in Britain last year. You are also big buyers of German pharmaceuticals, chemicals and petroleum products.
Volkswagen (pictured) alone sold 200,000 cars in Britain last year. You are also big buyers of German pharmaceuticals, chemicals and petroleum products
Given that our ‘golden decade’ of growth stuttered to a halt last year and the economy has since been devastated by the pandemic, the last thing we need is a tariff barrier to one of our biggest markets.
After all, Britain is not just any old member of the EU. The UK economy is bigger than the 11 smallest EU member states combined. In effect, the EU is shrinking from 27 member states to 16.
We are now at an historical turning point. On Friday, German foreign minister Maas rightly said that future generations will judge us harshly if we walk away from the talks now.
This amounted to a veto from Berlin against the EU Commission’s hawkish stance towards Britain. Monsieur Barnier’s strategy, to force Britain into a position of such despair that it would be forced to come grovelling back some time in the future, has effectively been rebuffed by Berlin.
From what I hear from those close to Ursula von der Leyen, the head of the European Commission, the EU had ceased negotiating in earnestness long before Prime Minister Johnson’s fruitless journey for that dinner in Brussels last Wednesday.
Ursula bossed him around in front of the cameras and served him fish and an Australian dessert – a not so subtle hint as to where this whole affair is heading.
But as Mr Johnson’s plane waited to take him back to London, journalists in Berlin were briefed that Chancellor Merkel was in favour of a face-saving solution for Britain – one that would preserve your sovereignty in so far as there is such a thing in a world growing ever more interdependent.
Alas, the sources told us, Mrs Merkel’s former protegee Ursula had told her in no uncertain terms that it is the prerogative of Brussels and of Brussels alone to conduct all last-minute negotiations and any interference from single national governments was regarded as unwelcome interference. This, Mrs von der Leyen insisted, was the only way to safeguard the interests of all member states collectively.
The sources told us, Mrs Merkel’s (pictured) former protegee Ursula had told her in no uncertain terms that it is the prerogative of Brussels and of Brussels alone
Yesterday’s change of course is a sign of hope, that Paris – and with it Brussels – is coming to its senses.
It would be a grave misreading of Britain’s determination to take back control from the EU, to punish you now on the basis that a future government will knock on our door asking politely for re-entry.
Needless to say, the negotiations could still fail but, if they do, it could be a blessing in disguise.
Once you are out completely, even if it is on WTO-terms, you may well look back on 2020 as the year in which you managed to escape the dead hand of Brussels and regain your role as a global player with a distinctly more liberal, more entrepreneur-friendly and hence more attractive and innovative place to do business.
Ursula von der Leyen (pictured) might be slightly bossy – but the good thing from your point of view is that she is not French but German
A kind of Singapore on Thames is exactly what is feared most in Berlin and this is why Germany will do everything it takes to avoid a trade war and to get Monsieur Barnier and France off their high horse.
Ursula von der Leyen might be slightly bossy – but the good thing from your point of view is that she is not French but German.
In fact, she is from Lower Saxony, a place which not only has particularly close ties to Britain but is the region where Volkswagen’s headquarters is located.
With the entreaties of Mrs Merkel and Germany’s foreign minister Maas ringing in her ears, my prediction is that Mrs von der Leyen will go that extra mile the French seem incapable of going.
Schools across the Royal Borough of Greenwich in southeast London are being forced to close from the end of day on Monday and move classes online, amid an "exponential growth" of the pandemic.
In an open letter published on Sunday evening, the leader of the council Danny Thorpe warned that "the situation in Greenwich in relation to COVID-19 is now escalating extremely quickly".
"I have today been briefed by colleagues from Public Health England that the pandemic in Greenwich is now showing signs that we are in a period of exponential growth that demands immediate action," Mr Thorpe continued.
He said Greenwich is seeing the highest rates of coronavirus infection than at any time since March.
"For these reasons I have therefore asked all schools in Greenwich to close their premises from Monday evening and move to online learning for the duration of the term," Mr Thorpe added.
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As in the first lockdown, exceptions will remain for the children of key workers and those with specific needs, he said.
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In another letter to families, Mr Thorpe stressed: "It is absolutely essential that everyone understands this is NOT an opportunity to extend Christmas celebrations in any way, and I'm asking for this to happen to reduce the risk of transmission."
He apologised for the disruption that the school closures were likely to cause to family lives, adding: "I wouldn't be asking for this unless the risk was extreme, but with numbers rising so rapidly it is clear action is needed."
The move comes as another 18,447 coronavirus cases and 144 related deaths have been reported on Sunday across the whole of the UK. Last Sunday, the figures were 17,272 and 231.
Total cases over the past seven days are up 19.1% - or 20,245 - on the previous week, with 126,163 people testing positive.
Health experts have urged Boris Johnson to tighten coronavirus restrictions in England where needed “without any delay” or risk hospitals being overwhelmed by a third wave of Covid-19 infections.
In a letter to the prime minister ahead of Wednesday’s review of the tiered system, NHS Providers urged the government to exercise “extreme caution” if moving any area to a lower tier, and not to hesitate placing areas including the capital into tier 3 as soon as it became apparent this would be the most appropriate course of action.
Chris Hopson, chief executive of the group that represents NHS hospitals, community, mental health and ambulance services, said there had been a worrying increase in infections and hospitalisations in London, Kent and Essex, adding: “It is particularly concerning that these increases come at the tail-end of a second national lockdown.”
He warned that at the start of September, the NHS was treating 500 hospitalised Covid-19 patients, but by 10 December, this figure had soared to 13,000 patients. Additionally, the NHS has 10,000 fewer beds in operation this winter due to infection control measures.
Wednesday’s review of the UK’s tiered system comes as countries across Europe tighten coronavirus restrictions. Germany will go into ‘hard lockdown’ next week following a record rise in infections and deaths.
UK ministers will assess the latest data as well as guidance from bodies such as NHS Test and Trace and the chief medical officers, with new rules for each area due to come into effect shortly after.
Each area will be assessed using five criteria: pressures on local NHS services, the positivity rate, the case rate in all age groups and particularly among the over 60s.
Leading scientists have also raised concerns about the UK’s planned relaxation of rules over Christmas whereby three households across a five day period will be permitted to form a “Christmas bubble” and gather within private homes, outdoor public spaces or places of worship.
Sarah Gilbert, lead researcher on the Oxford Vaccine Development Programme told BBC’s Andrew Marr Show that it was vital that the UK avoided following in the footsteps of the US, which has experienced 3,000 coronavirus deaths each day following Thanksgiving celebrations in November.
Professor Gilbert also warned that a surge in infections throughout the new year would slow down the delivery of the vaccines, with GPs expected to begin administering the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine from this week.
“It’s not possible to run vaccination clinics when staff are off sick and there’s a very high transmission rate affecting people’s ability to come to be vaccinated”, she said. “What we do over the next few weeks is really going to have a big impact on how long it’s going to take to get back to normal.”
Despite the warnings about relaxing rules around Christmas, foreign secretary Dominic Raab said that while those in the scientific community had a right “to be concerned” about the spread of the virus, the government remained committed to its strategy.
In an interview with Sky News, he said: “It has been a really tough year all round, everyone has felt it, I think people do need that five day window over Christmas to spend a bit of time with their loved ones — I think on a mental health level and emotional level people do need it.”
A government spokesperson said: “We will not hesitate to take necessary actions to protect local communities and tiering decisions are made by ministers based on the latest available data and advice from public health experts.”
