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More than two million primary school students were scheduled to return to school in England on June 1, but lack of school readiness, fear of parents and teachers, and confusion about government rules contributed to the chaos on the day. Christened by the media as "Happy Monday": the great step in the "de-escalation" in the United Kingdom, at the head of Europe with 38,489 coronavirus deaths.

The not so happy Monday came preceded by criticism of the Boris Johnson government by the Association of Directors of Public Health (ADPH), warning that the battery of new measures (from the reopening of schools to the authorization of meetings of up to six people) under the open sky) are "premature" and are not "backed by science".

"We are increasingly concerned that the government has misjudged the balance between the risk of more social interactions and the risk of a resurgence of the virus," said Jeanelle de Gruchy, head of the ADPH, who stressed that the level of deaths and Infections have not yet gone down enough and that the epidemic testing and tracking systems are not fully operational.

The next step in the "de-escalation" also occurs between the police warning that the last rules of the cofinance were already blown up over the weekend, with the parks and beaches crowded by the summer weather that has installed in the British Isles.

Labor opposition leader Keir Starmer has meanwhile blamed Boris Johnson and his outspoken defense of strategist Dominic Cummings (despite violating the confinement rules) for general mistrust of government instructions: "What I really worries is that people think: "If Cummings does not respect the rules, why I am going to respect them?".

In the past two weeks, Johnson has also faced reluctance from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to abide by his plans. Scotland has in fact postponed back to school until mid-August. At least 18 cities in the north of England (from Liverpool to Leeds) threatened in advance to delay the reopening of schools.

95% of teachers had expressed "concern" and 91% acknowledged their "lack of confidence" at the hasty reopening after ten weeks, according to a survey by the NASUWT union. 43% of parents of elementary school students and 54% of high school students acknowledged their "anxiety" about going back to school on June 1.

Queuing at the entrance to the schools from eight in the morning and maintaining strict social distance, the first London schools timidly opened their doors, although they warned parents that they will need at least three days of adjustment to admit the first groups children between 6 and 11 years old.

Schools like Havelock warned from the outset that the school will not open its doors until June 15 at the earliest to make the necessary changes in its facilities and in the classrooms to guarantee social distance, divide the classrooms by groups and start all protection and disinfection measures.

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United KingdomRebellion in schools facing the de-escalation of Boris Johnson

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CoronavirusBoris Johnson warns Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland that they will only allow divergences in the "de-escalation" for a short time