An entire year group at Edinburgh’s largest secondary school has been ordered to learn from home following a huge rise in Covid cases among staff and pupils.
Third year students at Portobello High School have been studying remotely this week after education chiefs acted amid skyrocketing absence numbers.
It comes as Scotland’s death toll from the virus rose by 117 in the past seven days.
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City of Edinburgh Council bosses are yet to fully close any institutions due to staff absences.
The Portobello group is currently the only school cohort to be learning from home despite thousands of new cases being recorded in the capital over the past few days.
Parents were informed of the decision earlier this week, with pupils expected to return to in-person classes in the coming days.
A letter issued by the school read: "We are currently experiencing a high rate of staff absence. This is due in part to the rise in Covid 19 infections which has been reported in recent days as well as a number of other factors beyond our control.
"Combined with the fact that we have practical assessments for various SQA examinations taking place in school at the moment, this has placed enormous strain on our staffing.
"Regrettably, in order to maintain safe staffing levels and safeguard wellbeing throughout the school community, a partial school closure is unavoidable.
"Please note that the school is open to all other young people (in S1, 2, 4, 5 and 6) and they should attend school as normal. Please be assured that every effort has been made to avoid this situation and we will continue to work with colleagues in the Education directorate at the City of Edinburgh Council to find solutions."
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon opted to push back the date of abolishing the legal requirement to wear face masks in public places from the originally planned March 21 in response to an increase in cases driven by the BA.2 omicron variant.
The strain, which is now the dominant version across the country, now makes up 80 per cent of all Scottish cases.
New data from National Records of Scotland (NRS) shows the number of cases where Covid-19 was mentioned on a death certificate in the week ending March 13 was up by six from the previous week.
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The latest weekly figures showed there were 14 coronavirus deaths in Edinburgh, tied with Glasgow as the largest number in the country.
Across Scotland, 27 of the 32 council areas had at least one death involving Covid-19 last week.
City of Edinburgh Council has been contacted for comment.
