Within a week of children of returning to school, a slight rise has been reported in the number of new coronavirus cases in Brighton and Hove.
There were 93 new cases in the week to Sunday 14 March compared with 83 the week before.
This equated to a rate of 32 per 100,000 people up from a rate of 28.5 over the previous seven days.
Brighton and Hove still has one of the lowest rates of new covid infections in the country, according to figures from Public Health England.
The latest figures suggest about 40 per cent of council areas have reported a rise in cases since schools resumed on Monday 8 March.
Among local schools to send pupils home since then because of the virus are Cardinal Newman Catholic School and Stanford Junior School.
The Green leader of Brighton and Hove City Council, Phélim Mac Cafferty, said: “As predicted by government scientists, the reopening of schools and the welcome increase in testing has revealed more cases of covid-19.
“But sadly people are mixing outside of school and indoors.
“While we should exercise caution about drawing comparisons with other European countries, those with rising cases cite the Kent variant as the reason why, having come out of lockdown, they are reimposing it weeks later.
“And we must remember that scientists here say we have 10 detected variants and we don’t know yet what will happen when lockdown is fully lifted.
“Our focus remains on how we reopen the city in a safe and managed way, to support our tourism, events and hospitality industry, but also keep residents and visitors protected from new infection.”
