COUNCIL bosses have said Glasgow schools will be affected by the rapidly spreading Omicron variant - despite no schools having to close yesterday.

Pupils across Scotland have been told to learn at home as Covid-linked staff absences bring disruption to classrooms at the start of the new term.

However, education leaders suggested fresh changes to self-isolation rules could help to alleviate pressures.

Despite the high number of cases, there were no Covid-related school closures across the city yesterday.

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A council spokesperson added: “With the high numbers of positive cases in communities across the city there is no doubt that many of our schools will be affected in some way, with both pupils and staff self-isolating or who have the virus, but we have not had to close any of our schools.

“The changes to the self-isolation and household contact rules announced today by the Scottish Government will have an impact on numbers over the next few weeks."

Children and young people in 11 local authority areas returned to classrooms yesterday following the Christmas break. Peers in the rest of the country are due to go back over the coming days.

West Dunbartonshire Council said 26 teachers either had Covid or were displaying its symptoms. A further 23 were self-isolating after being identified as close contacts. Council bosses stressed that absences were covered within the affected schools.

Early indications of disruption came as First Minister Nicola Sturgeon unveiled changes to self-isolation rules that should help ease some of the pressure on staffing levels. From today, those who test positive for Covid will be advised they can end self-isolation if they do not have a fever and obtain a negative lateral flow (LFD) result on day six and again at least 24 hours later.

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Triple-vaccinated close contacts of those who test positive, both household and non-household, or those under the age of 18 and four months, do not need to isolate as long as they return a negative LFD test result each day for seven consecutive days, and remain fever-free. However, close contacts who are not triple-vaccinated will still have to self-isolate for 10 days and take a PCR test.

Ms Sturgeon told MSPs the changes struck “an appropriate balance” between breaking chains of transmission and reducing the impact of self-isolation on critical services such as education. She added: “I don’t want to see any further disruption to children’s education because of the impact on attainment... That’s why we are determined to keep schools open.”