CHESHIRE East Council leader Sam Corcoran says he is glad the "uncertainty" surrounding schools opening has been settled by the government's national lockdown announcement last night.

Many primary schools in Crewe and the rest of the borough opened for pupils on Monday, but now learning is to be moved online as they shut their doors along with secondary schools until after the February half term at the earliest.

Vulnerable pupils, though, are being encouraged to continue to attend school with safety measures in place while early years settings, such as nurseries, will still be open.

Colleges are also closed in the borough, including Cheshire College South & West, which had been planning to reopen on January 18 under tier four restrictions.

Education chiefs have promised pupils and parents they will have a timetable outlining remote learning schedules as soon as possible.

Cllr Corcoran said: "It is very regrettable to have to go into a third national lockdown but it is clear that additional measures are needed to tackle the rise in new variant Covid-19 cases, protect vulnerable residents, prevent hospitals being overwhelmed and to save lives.

"I welcome the removal of uncertainty around the opening of schools, which will now remain closed, except for vulnerable children and children of key workers.

"Schools and colleges are the last places we want to close as we recognise the importance of attending school for children's education and wellbeing."

The council says over the last few months it has been working with its schools to develop innovative programmes to help learners respond to the challenges of lockdown.

The council's deputy leader Craig Browne believes the latest lockdown will provide time to prepare for rapid testing and for the authority to lobby government to ensure school staff are prioritised for vaccinations.

Cllr Kathryn Flavell, Cabinet member for children and families, said: "I am in awe of the resilience of our education team, schools and nurseries which have constantly adapted to new ways of working from providing risk assessments, managing outbreaks, distributing around 800 laptops and providing additional school transport."

Today the government announced a £4.6bn package of grants to help businesses, with firms in retail, hospitality and leisure eligible for one-off grants up to £9,000.

Cheshire East says it has a database of those businesses which had applied for grants previously, and they will receive payments in due course.

The borough has previously spent time in tiers two, three and four following November's circuit breaker lockdown. But the impact of those and the current restrictions could take weeks to show on current infection rates, which continue to follow an upward curve.

While government figures today (January 5) show the number of people testing positive in the borough has dropped to 180 from the levels of recent days (337 on January 3 and 243 on December 29), over the last seven days there have been 1,694 positive cases, 633 more than the previous week (a 60 per cent increase).

The number of deaths within 28 days of a positive test reported today in Cheshire East was five; there have been 21 in the last seven days, a rise of 24 per cent on the previous week.

The rate of infection per 100,000 population on New Year's Eve was 409.7.

Director of Public Health Dr Matt Tyrer said: "This is a significant increase on the numbers we saw just a few days ago when we moved to tier four and is evidence that new restrictions are necessary.

"We have heard this week that a second vaccine has been approved for use in the UK and vaccinations are now taking place across the borough. This is great news, but our optimism must be tempered by a resolve to stick to the basics. So don't forget 'hands, face, space' and make sure that, if you have symptoms, you self-isolate and get a test."

For more information about support, advice and guidance for individuals and businesses you can visit.

You can read the national lockdown restrictions here.