MORE than 1,000 children in Herefordshire have been off school due to coronavirus this week, the local public health team has said.

Since pupils returned to the classrooms in September after the summer holidays, cases have "continued to rise", a Herefordshire Council spokesperson said.

Around half of maintained schools in the county have reported at least one positive coronavirus case, data for Wednesday, September 22 showed.

At those 48 schools there were 494 confirmed cases in pupils.

On top of that, there were a further 585 suspected cases. 

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It means 1,079 pupils in Herefordshire were off school on Wednesday due to coronavirus, according to the council's public health team.

Data for Wednesday, July 14 – before the summer holidays – showed there were more pupils off school.

But that was when people aged under 18 had to self-isolate if they were a close contact of someone with coronavirus – that is no longer the case.

On July 14, 1,300 pupils from 20 schools were off school due to Covid-19, and John Kyrle High School in Ross-on-Wye had been forced to close.

Two schools are currently fully closed due to coronavirus, but are planning to reopen as normal on Monday, October 4.

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Almeley Primary School and Kingstone High School are both closed due to the number of Covid cases found.

The pupils at both schools are being offered online learning in the interim so they can continue with their education, Herefordshire Council said.

And Hereford Academy, The Bishop of Hereford's Bluecoat School, Marlbrook Primary School, Sutton Primary Academy and Holmer Primary Academy are among the schools to confirm cases.

On Wednesday, Herefordshire's public health team warned parents not to send their children to school if they had coronavirus symptoms.

READ MORE: Warning to parents as coronavirus closes two Herefordshire schools

The data, submitted to the Department for Education, was sent in by 92 of Herefordshire's 98 maintained schools on September 22.

Herefordshire Council said the 585 suspected cases would be either those children showing symptoms and awaiting confirmation of a PCR, or pupils having had a positive lateral flow who are then required to take a PCR.