Covid cases in school-age children are on the rise once again according to new data from the ZOE Covid study.
This comes as NHS staff absences linked to Covid-19 are now falling with a drop of a quarter in the last week.
The ZOE study, using a popular monitoring app developed by King’s College London, estimated that one in 27 Brits had symptomatic Covid three days ago.
It estimated such cases among under-18s have increased from around 3,000 new daily cases at the start of December up to almost 5,000.
NHS England announced staff Covid absences “are going in the right direction” but warned “staff will have many tough months ahead”.
Some 29,517 NHS staff at hospital trusts in England were absent for Covid-19 reasons on January 16, down 26% on the previous week.
However this is still more than double that seen at the start of December.
This includes staff ill with coronavirus or having to self-isolate due to close contacts.
In the latest release the Zoe study put the UK's R value at 0.9.
Lead scientist Prof Tim Spector said: “In just two weeks the number of new cases per day has fallen around 31% from its peak of over 211,000 to under 145,000.
“New cold-like symptoms are now again slightly more likely to just be a cold and not Covid.
“While it is easy to think the worst is over, our health service is still not functioning properly.
“The ZOE data is already showing an uptick in symptomatic cases in children due to the back to school effect.”
There were 68,871 NHS staff at hospital trusts in England who were absent for all sickness reasons on January 16, down 15% on the previous week.
NHS England medical director Prof Stephen Powis said: “Even though the numbers are going in the right direction, NHS staff will have many tough months ahead as they continue to deliver patient care while managing competing demands.
“While staff absences remain high and continue to increase in some parts of the country it is good to see they have been reducing week on week.
“The number of people in hospital for both Covid and non-covid care remains high, and arrivals at A&E via ambulance increased by more than 2,000.
