Schools in Bolton are set to keep the same guidance that is currently in place regarding face masks, despite rules being relaxed nationally, due to the increase in coronavirus cases in the borough.

Some schools have started sending out messages to parents saying that they will not be relaxing rules on May 17, including continuing to wear face coverings in lessons and communal areas where social distancing is hard to maintain.

Health officials have said the Indian variant of Covid-19 is spreading mostly among younger people in Bolton, with calls being made for vaccines to be given to all those above 16 in Bolton to combat this spread.

Schools say this is a decision that has been made in conjunction with Bolton Council and the public health team in response to the spike in coronavirus cases in the past few weeks.

The council has now sent a letter to parents, informing them schools have been asked to retain the use of face coverings until further notice.

The letter by Bernie Brown, the Bolton Council’s director of children’s services, and Helen Lowey, the director of public health, tells parents: “Thank you for your ongoing support during the pandemic by continuing to follow the latest government guidance.

“On Monday, the Prime Minister announced changes linked to England’s progress along the road map out of lockdown. This included the intention to relax measures for the use of face coverings in schools from Monday May 17. The exception to this is for those areas where there are local outbreaks.

“In our locality and in neighbouring areas there are cases of a variant of SARS-CoV2 (the virus that causes Covid-19). This variant is spreading quickly and has contributed to numbers of people with Covid-19 in some areas almost doubling in a week.

“Following discussions with school leaders, councillors, Bolton’s Incident Management Team and the Director of Public Health, Bolton Council is asking schools to retain the use of face coverings, as per the current arrangements, until further notice.

“There have been instances where young people attending school or college have contributed to the spread of the virus. We believe it would be irresponsible to wait until we have higher levels of the newer variants of SARS-CoV2 circulating before we act.

“I am sure you will understand the need for caution at this time. We will continue to keep the situation under review and will inform schools as soon as our local guidance changes.”

Westhoughton High is one school that has let parents know about this already, saying that they will be sticking to current guidance in response to ‘localised outbreaks’.

A post on the school’s Facebook page said: “Guidance around face coverings in schools will be relaxed nationally from Monday May17. However, this guidance allows for local decisions to reintroduce face coverings in response to localised outbreaks.

“Due to the current position within Greater Manchester, our Local Public Health Body has made the decision that in Bolton we should retain the current face covering guidance, involving the wearing of masks in classrooms and indoor circulation/social spaces.”

Bolton School boy’s head Philip Britton said: “Time to remind boys about the basic at school and out of school - wash hands often, wear masks as needed and keep your distance. The virus does not know we hoped it had gone away.”

Harper Green School informed parents they had been advised to keep ‘mitigations’ around face masks in place ‘until further notice'. An official said: “As you may be aware the number of cases of Covid within Bolton are currently at a higher level than other parts of the country.