CHILDCARE workers should be given proper personal protection equipment (PPE) and vaccinations while having to continue working during the Covid-19 pandemic, MP Nadia Whittome said yesterday.

On the first day of the spring term most primary and secondary schools remained shut while childcare providers such as nurseries were told to stay open.

The new Covid-19 strain spread quickly among children during the November lockdown and only closing schools can contain it, a new Imperial College London report warned last week. The mutated virus is more infectious that the original for under-nines, according to the data.