A North East headteacher has issued a plea to parents as he looks to encourage students to continue wearing face coverings despite a change in the rules from the Government.
Andy Byers, the headteacher of Framwellgate School in Durham, also criticised the Prime Minister following the move, claiming it had been done to protect Boris Johnson from his own backbenchers from the fallout of the partygate scandal.
Mr Byers pointed out that coronavirus case rates in the North East are still high when compared to other parts of the country.
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At his school he highlighted that more than 60 pupils and 10 staff were absent after testing positive for Covid.
He also said a small number of those isolating have been "quite poorly".
He wrote on Twitter: "So face coverings are no longer required in secondary schools from tomorrow.
"I understand that this is a decision taken to prevent the PMs backbenchers turning on him but (as usual) it would be helpful if schools had more than an hour or two to react."
Mr Byers also sent a letter to parents to inform them face masks will be encouraged for the "next two or three weeks".
It read: "This announcement creates some difficulty for us. Case rates in the North East are still relatively high. We currently have 60+ students and 10 staff absent, having tested positive.
"A small proportion of those people have been quite poorly.
"Speaking to colleagues in other local secondary schools, we are all in a similar position; high levels of absence, with some students missing important face-to-face teaching, and a reliance on supply teachers covering lessons.
"For this reason, I would like to encourage students to continue to wear face coverings for the next two or three weeks until (hopefully) case numbers fall."
Mr Byers also featured on BBC Radio 4's Today Programme on Thursday during an interview with Health Secretary Sajid Javid.
Mr Javid was defending the move on the basis that case rates were falling - but Mr Byers' interview highlighted the problems with this.
Speaking to the BBC, he said: "Face masks were brought in for a reason; because the Omicron variant was spreading quickly and case rates were particularly high.
"In this area of the country case rates are still high. We don't see the need or the reason to remove those mitigations now."
He added that the messages put out by Government made it difficult for the school to get the message across that it wanted pupils to continue to wear masks.
Responding, Mr Javid pointed out that case rates were falling across the country, with hospitalisations also falling.
Cases in County Durham fell by 39.5% in the seven days up to January 14 when compared with the previous week, but the county's case rate is still high - 1,402.4 cases per 100,000 residents.
When it was pointed out that the levels of cases were still high, Mr Javid said: "They are, of course the prevalence is still at a high level, although it is falling, compared to where we've seen Covid before, but the big difference is that people have come forward and been vaccinated.
"It's that level of protection that allowed us to remove those measures."
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