The chief medical officers of all four component countries of the United Kingdom have asserted that children should return to school after summer vacation, the BBC reports, despite fears of many parents of the potential risks.
"Very few, if any, children or teenagers will come to long term harm from COVID-19 due solely to attending school," they said in a joint statement. "This has to be set against a certainty of long-term harm to many children and young people from not attending school."
The four medical experts added that, "The percentage of symptomatic cases requiring hospitalisation is estimated to be 0.1% for children aged 0-9 and 0.3% among those aged 10-19, compared to a hospitalisation rate of over 4% in the UK for the general population."
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has previously stated that getting children back to school is a "national priority."