A WINCHESTER school has recorded at least one case of Covid-19.

The Hampshire County Council website has today said a case was reported at Kings' secondary school on Wednesday, March 10.

Kings' School is one of the largest secondary schools in Hampshire with more than 1,600 pupils taking pupils from a wide area.

The Chronicle has approached the school for comment about the new case.

It was unclear whether the case was detected by the school's own testing or from those in the wider community by Public Health England.

The school is the first one in the Winchester district to be affected by Covid for  more than a week.

Pupils have been returning to school this week on a staggered basis with Years 10 and 11 returning on Monday, Year 7 on Tuesday and Years 8 and 9 on Wednesday.

In a letter to parents sent at the start of term this week, Dr James Adams said: "The return to school involves pupils undertaking a Lateral Flow Test for COVID. In order to facilitate this in a safe and effective manner, we are implementing a staggered return of pupils. Our intention is that pupils will return for the start of school on their allocated day. They will attend lessons in their year group bubbles, with the tests conducted

throughout the day. They will then continue to attend school from that point onwards.

"Please note the sequencing is based upon balancing the priority of year groups who are closest to exams and those who are least able to be left at home independently. Testing two year groups each day is an ambitious target and we will inform you if we need to delay any of the return dates due to testing taking longer than expected.

"Pupils will be tested on the day they arrive back in school, repeated 3 to 5 days apart until they have taken 3 tests. When pupils have had their third test they will be issued with the ‘At Home Test Kits’ to allow continued testing twice weekly at home."

In the past 24 hours, there have been two new confirmed cases of Covid-19 linked to Winchester University, the first for more than a week.

Since last September there have been 198 cases linked to the institution.

Other Covid news:

Major vaccine milestone in Winchester district but big rise in new cases today