A GOVERNMENT minister has said no evidence points to coronavirus being contracted inside a school building.

Speaking to the Leader, Wales’ minister for education Kirsty Williams said that parents should not worry about sending their children into schools – despite reports that staff members across the country have tested positive for the virus just days after classrooms reopened to all pupils.

She said: “There is no evidence to show that that is the case. The evidence shows that any cases we have had associated with staff are acquired from the community rather than the school itself, either with activities they have engaged with through family or friends.

“At this stage, we are only a week into schools opening and cases we are seeing are cases linked to community transmission and not from within schools.”

Sites in North Wales reported that staff members had tested positive for COVID-19 earlier this week - including St Christopher’s School in Wrexham.

The Leader first reported the case on Monday, September 7, after the head teacher issued a statement when they informed parents and carers that a primary school teacher had tested positive for coronavirus.

The school was closed as a precautionary step but reopened to pupils two days later on Wednesday.

Health minister for Wales, Vaughan Gething, previously stated that widespread school closures should be a last resort to avoid any further disruption to education.

Speaking at this Tuesday’s coronavirus press conference, he said: “The measures that every school should have in place is how they manage their groups to ensure there are isolated groups and not the whole school mixing.

“And that means if we do see individual cases we can take part of the school community out to self-isolate whilst others are able to go to school in the manner they are now getting used to with the start of the school year.

“I do not want to see widespread school closures because we know that causes real harm to children and young people and their prospects for the future - as well as their general health and wellbeing.

“We are carrying on with our program – it is safe for schools to be open but it is actually the behaviour of adults that play the biggest risk factor and not children being in school themselves.”