Rejected petition Close schools, colleges and universities

Rejected on 4 January 2021

Reclose schools and colleges due to increase in COVID-19 cases and the new variant. We are seeing cases of students and teachers catching the virus since schools have reopened and a new variant is rapidly increasing across London and the East/South East of England

Today 41,385 people tested positive for covid-19 and a further 357 people have died. Millions of people are under a tier 4 lockdown but keeping schools and colleges open won't bring the cases down enough for the tier system lockdowns to be effective. Closing schools and colleges for a minimum of 4 weeks will not only help to reduce the numbers but also protect those that are vulnerable. The new variant is rapidly spreading and I fear keeping the schools open will spread it even faster

Why was this petition rejected?

There’s already a petition about this issue. We cannot accept a new petition when we already have one about a very similar issue.

You are more likely to get action on this issue if you sign and share a single petition.

You may wish to sign some of these petitions:

Reclose schools and colleges due to increase in COVID-19 cases: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/550846

Require university campuses to close to stop the spread of COVID-19: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/552512

We only reject petitions that don’t meet the petition standards.