The decision is based on research by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH).
Speaking at the daily press briefing, Dr Jenny Harries said, ‘As evidence has evolved, we’ve seen that admission to hospital for all children under 18 years old in the UK with Covid-19 is very low indeed. Only 36 children in the UK have been admitted to intensive care.
‘Shielding guidance to date has covered a broad range of conditions and clinical vulnerabilities. We know that many parents have been worried about how they can protect their children’
She said that new guidance from the RCPCH will help families understand who does and does not need to shield.
‘Now we have more evidence we can be much more specific about risk. It is very likely that in the future very few children will need to shield. The evidence the children’s clinical experts has brought together, strongly recommends that children and young people cared for just in primary care are very unlikely to continue to need to shield in the future. There is a group of children that exist who due to their underlying conditions may need to continue to shield. Over the summer parents can look forward to discussions through routine paediatric appointments. We will be talking with your doctors and colleges to make sure you have the right information.’
Asked whether this meant that children that have been shielding can return to school in September, she said, ‘Absolutely. What we know is that there are almost certainly a very large number of children who are not going to school at the moment who could go because parents are concerned that they should be shielding.
'A typical example would be a child with some asthma, but it’s very well controlled, [they] don’t normally see a specialist, or may have seen them once or twice, see their GP occasionally who checks on them, maybe [are] growing out of it, or perhaps [have asthma] when they do some exercise.
‘Those children are at very, very low risk of Covid, but have a very significant risk of getting left behind in their education [if they are not going to school] and in terms of their long-term health outcomes that would be far worse.
‘By September there should be much fewer number of children on the shielding list who would need to be away from school.’
Health secretary Matt Hancock announced that rules on shielding will be relaxed from 6 July for families.
He said that 2.2m people have been shielding in England. (Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own guidance.)
‘We knew it was a difficult ask, but these measures were vital to saving lives,’ he said.
From 6 July, people who have been shielding will be able to gather outdoors in a group of up to six people, including with family members not in their immediate household.
And anyone living alone, or single parents with children, will be allowed to form a ‘support bubble’ with one other household of any size, in line with rules in place for the wider population.
People should still minimise contact, keep a safe distance from people at all times, and regularly wash their hands for 20 seconds.
From 1 August England will ‘pause shielding’, meaning people can go out to places and see others and go to the shops, for example.
They can also return to work as long as their business is Covid safe.
The chief medical officer has commissioned research so that in future people will have more tailored and individualised advice from their doctor.
In future therefore, it may be a different group that needs to shield, Dr Harries said.
Mr Hancock said that food boxes and medicine deliveries will continue until the end of July. Seven supermarkets have said they will continue to prioritise deliveries.
The Government says the shielding advice can be relaxed because the epidemiology has changed and the chance of meeting someone in the community with Covid-19 is now one in 1,700, compared to 1 in 500 four weeks ago.
The new risk assessment research methodology is being published today by academics from Oxford University.
Guidance will be updated and the health secretary said he would be writing to people individually.
