NEARLY half the parents approached so far in Cheshire East have consented to their children receiving the Covid vaccination in schools.

Mark Bayley, head of service for education infrastructure and outcomes at Cheshire East Council, told a meeting of the children and families committee that 46 per cent had so far agreed.

He said the number of Covid cases in schools were falling overall, but there were still spikes in some areas.

As of last Friday (November 5) there were 215 cases per 100,000 in the 0-3 age group; 647 per 100,000 in the 4-11 age group; 1,308 in the 12-16 age group; 469 in the 17-18 age group and 233 per 100,000 in the 19 to 24 age group.

Mr Bayley told councillors: "Previously we have reported the 12 to 16 to be more than 3,000 so it is good to see the rate in that particular age group has reduced.

"We will obviously continue to monitor that to see the impact of the half term going forward."

He added: "A big area of work is the roll-out of vaccinations across Cheshire East in secondary schools for 12 to 16.

"As of the end of last week, 4,500 of those vaccinations have now taken place.

"Last week [there were] over 1,300 and the average consent rate at the moment, across all those schools, is at 46 per cent."

He said it was also possible some people were now using the booking system for children.

Crewe St. Barnabas councillor Sally Handley said she had received three notifications on her phone during the committee meeting to say that pupils at the school her children attend had tested positive over the weekend.

"I can see those numbers have gone down since our last committee meeting, but I think it's going to be very interesting to see where we are in a week's time because we've all been off all over the place [during half term] and we've all come back into school."

She said as the figures had gone down the restrictions had changed.

"I had an email last night from the headteacher of my children's school saying we're going to have to increase the measures going back to pre-summer holiday restrictions and practices in the school because of the sharp rise in cases she's had reported over the weekend," Cllr Handley told the committee.

Mr Bayley said many schools still have measures in place and will change them according to the local situation.

"The biggest priority area at the moment is with Macclesfield where we're seeing some spikes there, but that could happen anywhere so we are being as vigilant as we can," he said.