Around 1,500 Sutton children were off school last week due to a coronavirus case in their bubble.

That is just over 30 per cent of all pupils in the borough, based on Sutton Council figures that put total student numbers at 4,648. 

The revelation comes as cases in the borough are rapidly rising. There were 185 cases per 100,000 in the week to July 1, up from 94 cases per 100,000 the previous week.

At a Sutton Council strategy and resources committee meeting on Monday night (July 5), council leader Ruth Dombey said: “We can see that our infection rate is rising rapidly but having said that we are in a different place than before when cases were rising and that is due to the vaccination.”

Director of public health at the authority, Dr Imran Choudhury, put the latest figures into context pointing out that increase in Covid-19 cases is not leading to deaths in the borough.

But cases in schools are resulting in whole “bubbles” of children being sent home.

Dr Choudhury told the meeting that last week there were around 1,500 were off school for this reason.

Sutton has recorded just one coronavirus-related death since May, according to government data.

Read more: Thousands of new Covid cases reported in south London

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Dr Choudhury said: “In terms of case numbers, we are well over 100 per 100,000 now, which in days gone by, and particularly in the winter, were quite scary numbers. However we are only really seeing [the cases] in residents under 25. The vast majority of cases are in people who haven’t received the vaccine.”

He added that there have been no recent outbreaks in care homes and hospital admissions “remain flat”.

The government’s education secretary Gavin Williamson today announced that from August 16 pupils will no longer need to self-isolate if a close contact tests positive for Covid-19.

This ending of the bubble system was something that councillor Jenny Batt raised concerns about at the Sutton Council meeting before the decision was announced.

She said: “There are many children isolating in Sutton at the moment, it’s clear that in schools the virus is really picking up many parents will be quite concerned about isolating bubbles disappearing overnight.

“Our children aren’t vaccinated and we don’t know whether they will be. “