Covid cases rise 16 per cent to 37,578 and hospital admissions by 1.7 per cent

Britain's Covid cases are continuing to climb, increasing 16 per cent amid fears infections spiral when all children return to schools next week — prompting some experts to call for 12- to 15-year-olds to be given a vaccine.

Department of Health bosses posted 37,578 infections today, up from the 32,406 last Saturday on the bank holiday weekend.

It is the biggest week-on-week jump in new cases since August 22, when they rose by 20.2 per cent to 32,253.

Hospital admissions are also creeping up, jumping to 985 on August 31 — the latest date figures are available for. They were up 1.7 per cent on the 969 recorded the week before.

But deaths with the virus have fallen, dropping 9.8 per cent from the 133 recorded last Saturday to 120 today. 

It comes after SAGE adviser Professor John Edmunds, an epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, today said vaccinating children will stop classroom disruption when they return to school.

Ministers are pushing for schoolchildren aged 12- to 15-years-old to be given a jab, despite the Joint Commission for Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) yesterday advising against the move.

The JCVI — the independent body that advises the Government on the roll-out — claimed the virus posed such a low risk to people in the age group that the benefit of vaccination to their health would be marginal.

It did however recommend the jabs for 200,000 more children with chronic heart, kidney, lung and neurological conditions in that age group. A total of 350,000 children aged 12 to 15 are now eligible for the vaccine.

But experts pushing back against the plans today argued that it would be 'ethically dubious' to jab children solely to protect adults, because Covid itself poses such a tiny risk to youngsters.

Others believe it is better for children to catch Covid and recover to develop natural immunity than to be reliant on protection from vaccines, which studies suggest wanes in months.  

It comes as: 

Jillian Evans, head of health intelligence at NHS Grampian in Scotland, said vaccinating the age group would help prevent transmission of the virus, as well as protect children from long Covid.

Former chief scientific adviser Professor Sir Mark Walport said it is for the Government to look at the broader harms of not vaccinating children.  

Professor Edmunds told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'It's a very difficult one, They're going to take a wider perspective than the JCVI took, I think that's right.

'I think we have to take into consideration the wider effect Covid might have on children and their education and developmental achievements.

'In the UK now it's difficult to say how many children haven't been infected but it's probably about half of them, that's about six million children, so that's a long way to go if we allow infection just to run through the population.

'That's a lot of children who will be infected and that will be a lot of disruption to schools in the coming months.'

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: 'If the guidance is this will reduce the disruption for all those young people, yes, we will absolutely back that.

'The government is right on this — we have to look at the broader picture in England. 

'Specifically, where we have got so few measures now, this is going to be one of the most reassuring ways of telling those 12 to 15 year olds that is going to minimise the disruption for you.'

Professor Wei Shen Lim, the JCVI's chairman of Covid immunisation, said the group's view was that the benefits of vaccinating the age group 'are marginally greater than the potential harms' but that the benefits were 'too small' to support a universal rollout at this stage.