Government deputy chief medical officer Dr Jenny Harries and DfE chief scientific adviser Osama Rahman are among witnesses giving evidence to @CommonsEd shortly on the science of school closures. Stay tuned for live

First question to the scientists is about school reopenings.

Harries says ambition "should always be that schools should be open where that is appropriate", but there's a caveat around "current epidemiology" and "very high rates" seen recently.

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Rahman says government will be "looking at what the balance of risks are" and doing continued monitoring.

Asked if there could be a regional or phased system of reopening, Harries says it's "highly likely" there will not be consistent patterns of infections

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"It may well be possible that we need to have some differential application, but as Osama has said, clearly schools will be right at the top of the priority" - Harries

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Harries adds it's "likely that we will have some regional separation of interventions"

Rahman says DfE's contingency framework is aligned to the tier system "so it may be that that is appropriate"

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