PARENTS should tell their kids to wear a mask on the school bus, ministers urged today in a fresh push to keep Covid out of classrooms.
Nadhim Zahawi and Sajid Javid also tried to demolish the most common fears about children getting jabbed amid concerns of low take-up rates.
The Education and Health Secretaries wrote an open letter to mums and dads of secondary school pupils with a toolkit to halt the spread of infection.
It read: “Please encourage your child to follow guidance on wearing face coverings in spaces with people they don’t know well, for example on school transport.”
The Government no longer requires compulsory masks on public transport and leaves it down to individual providers.
Masks are also currently not recommended in schools, although Mr Zahawi has said he’d bring them back to tackle a spike.
It’s among a number of back-up plans to avoid reimposing hated classroom bubbles or shutting schools altogether.
All over-12s have been offered a single shot of Pfizer to wrestle down transmission among pupils.
In the letter Mr Zahawi and Mr Javid launch a fresh drive to get more pupils jabbed.
Although acknowledging the chances of youngsters being struck down by Covid is tiny, they say getting jabbed will reduce the chances of being infected.
They write: “The vaccine will protect young people from COVID-19 and reduce disruption to education, which is good for their welfare and mental health.
Reassuring hesitant parents, the Cabinet Ministers add that trials in other countries proves the jab has a “good safety record”.
They insisted cases of heart inflammation were “very rare” after one shot of the vaccine.
And they also took aim at anti-vaxxers spewing misinformation online.
They said: “You may have come across false or misleading information about the virus or the vaccine. It is important that you get your information from trusted sources”.
They also urged kids to get tested twice a week.
