Prof Graham Medley, a government scientific advisor, has said pubs or "other activities" in England may need to close to allow schools to reopen next month.

Prof Graham Medley told the BBC there may need to be a "trade-off", with the re-opening of schools seen as a "priority" for children's wellbeing.

Last week we reported that plans to ease closing restrictions for casinos, bowling alleys, skating rinks and some close-contact services would be postponed for at least a fortnight.

Prof Medley who is the chairman of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) sub-group on pandemic modelling told he BBC’s Radio 4's Today programme:

"I think we're in a situation whereby most people think that opening schools is a priority for the health and wellbeing of children and that when we do that we are going to reconnect lots of households.

"And so actually, closing some of the other networks, some of the other activities may well be required to enable us to open schools.

"It might come down to a question of which do you trade off against each other, and then that's a matter of prioritising. Do we think pubs are more important than schools?"

However, Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick, was asked on Times Radio whether the Government would look to close pubs after a rise in coronavirus transmissions and is reported to have said: 'We don't have any plans to do that.'

He added that schools would definitely return to full capacity in September and confirmed it would be the priority should there be a second spike of infections.

Source: BBC and Mail Online