On Air Now
Heart Breakfast with JK and Amanda Holden 6:30am - 10am
Coronavirus outbreak forces 18 UK schools to go into lockdown as death toll rises
26 February 2020, 08:44 | Updated: 26 February 2020, 13:39
As the coronavirus crisis continues, schools across the UK are taking no risks.
Three schools in the UK have closed and 15 have turned away staff and students over fears of spreading coronavirus.
The lockdown in schools across the UK comes after the coronavirus, which has now claimed over 2,000 lives, spread to Europe.
READ MORE: Brits in Coronavirus Tenerife hotel lockdown speak out for the first time
The schools that have closed are; Cransley School, Brine Leas Academy, Trinity Catholic College.
The schools across the UK that have turned away students and staff are; Crispin School, Guernsey's Grammar School, Hall Cross Academy, Haverfordwest High School, Newquay Tretherras, Penair School, Salendine Nook, Sandback High School, Sydney Russell, The Holt School, Torquay Boy's Grammar School, Ysgol Friars, Bandbridge Academy, Cambridge House Grammar School and Limavady Grammar School.
According to The Sun, the closed schools have done so as pupils recently returned from a skiing trip in Italy, where several people have died from the virus.
Other schools have sent a number of staff members or students home for 14 days of self-isolation.
Sandbach High School, for example, revealed that while they we're still open, staff and students who had recently been on a school trip to Lombardy in Italy have been sent home to quarantine themselves for the recommended two weeks.
Cambridge House Grammar School, found in Northern Ireland, sent an estimated 50 staff and students home for the same reason, they had just returned from a ski holiday in Italy.
It has been claimed that if the coronavirus becomes a pandemic, all schools could be shut, along with public transport.
There are currently over 81,000 coronavirus cases across the world, with 30,192 recoveries reported and over 2,700 deaths.
READ MORE: Children banned from heading footballs during training, new FA guidelines state
