English school children to wear masks to tackle Omicron surge

FILE PHOTO: Year 9 students wear protective face masks as they take part in lessons on the first day back at school, as the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) lockdown begins to ease at Harris Academy Sutton, south London, Britain, March 8, 2021. REUTERS/Toby Melville

LONDON (Reuters) - Children in secondary schools in England will be told to wear face coverings when they return after the Christmas holiday next week to tackle a surge in cases of the Omicron variant of COVID-19, Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi said on Sunday.

"We want to maximise the number of children in school and college for the maximum amount of time," he said in an article in the Sunday Telegraph.