Schools and nurseries across Scotland are to close at the end of this week, the First Minister has said.
Nicola Sturgeon confirmed they will shut from Friday as they have lost too many staff to continue as normal.
She added she couldn’t promise they would reopen until after the summer holidays.
Sturgeon said: “I want to be as open and transparent as possible.
“My view is that it is now inevitable that we will close schools and nurseries.
Schools and nurseries will close from this Friday @NicolaSturgeon announces. I appreciate this will be very disruptive but it is necessary. We are working with Councils to support young people preparing for @sqanews exams, are vulnerable and whose parents are essential workers.
— John Swinney (@JohnSwinney) March 18, 2020
“My planning assumption now is schools will close to pupils at the end of this week and I wanted today to give parents notice of that now.”
She said she wanted to reassure teachers and school staff that the Scottish Government would work with them as they know what is best for children.
Sturgeon also said they are still working out what exactly this will mean – including for those who receive free school meals – and added education secretary John Swinney will set out the finer detail on Thursday.
The announcement came in a briefing at St Andrew’s House in Edinburgh, where she also revealed a third patient in Scotland diagnosed with Covid-19 has died.
There are now 227 confirmed cases of coronavirus across Scotland, while the total figures for the UK are up to 2626 from 1950.