Pupils at Prince George and Princess Charlotte’s school placed in isolation over coronavirus fears

Four pupils at Prince George and Princess Charlotte’s school are in self-isolation over fears they may have contracted the coronavirus.

The children, who attend the Thomas’s Battersea school in southwest London have been sent home and are awaiting test results, it was reported this evening.  

It comes as at least 13 schools across the UK closed their doors over fears of the virus spreading.

A number of schools have told staff and pupils to stay at home after returning from ski trips to northern Italy, where several towns in the Lombardy and Veneto regions remain on lockdown. 

Sports fixtures have also come under threat with Ireland’s rugby match against Italy on Saturday being postponed today amid fears Italian fans could bring the virus to Dublin – but England’s Six Nations fixture in Rome on March 14 is still going ahead. 

England’s FA is holding urgent talks today about whether it is safe to host Italy’s football team for a Wembley friendly on March 27.

This is while several businesses today also sent staff home over fears that employees could be carrying the virus. 

A general view showing Thomas’s Battersea school in London where Prince George and Princess Charlotte attend

Since cases of the COVID-19 illness soared in Italy over the weekend they have spread around Europe, with mainland Spain, Switzerland, Austria and Croatia today all declaring their first infected patients

Children at the school in southwest London had recently been on a trip to northern Italy.

Two children returned from the trip after displaying flu-like symptoms and there is no suggestion that the royal children have been exposed to the virus.

The school’s website says that it runs a trip to Italy every two years. 

This evening, Spanish newspaper El Confidencial published a statement from the school.

‘Like all schools, we are taking very seriously the potential risks related to the spread of Covid-19 and to this end we are following the Government’s instructions to the letter on infection prevention and case management in which it is suspected that some staff member or students exposed to the virus or showing any symptoms. 

‘We currently have a very small number of students who have been evaluated and these individuals currently remain in their homes waiting to receive the results of their exams’.

Trinity Catholic College in Middlesbrough is one of more than a dozen schools which have been completely closed after students and staff returned from Italian ski trips. The Health Secretary has urged them to stay open

Cransley School, a private school in Northwich, Cheshire (pictured) announced it will be closed for the rest of the week because of coronavirus fears. It will also undergo a deep clean, in a precautionary move to prevent any cases

It added that all parents had been informed and that information was being circulated regularly.

The school also said that it would ‘preserve the confidentiality of staff and students and would not comment on specific cases’. 

More than 30 schools around the country have been caught up in panic and confusion after children returned home from ski trips to Italy. 

But a school in Swansea is ignoring pleas from parents to shut down after a class returned from a ski trip to Italy with pupils told that they still have to come in unless they have the flu.

Secondary school Cleeve Park, in Sidcup, south-east London also remained open today despite some of its pupils and staff reporting ‘feeling unwell’ after returning from a school ski trip to Bormio, in northern Italy on Saturday.

The school has announced today that it has advised an unspecified number of pupils and staff to isolate themselves at home, but allowed others from the trip attend.

It said it decided not to close after following advice from Public Health England that the school should remain open and all students should attend if they are well. 

However, some parents are against the headmaster’s decision.

One father has chosen to keep his son at home until results come back negative. 

Headteachers have the final say on when schools close for health and safety reasons such as illnesses or bad weather. 

The latest to shut their doors are Lime Academy Watergall in Bretton, Peterborough and Shepeau Stow Primary in Spalding. 

Lutton St Nicholas and Gedney Church End primary schools in Lincolnshire also closed ‘because of a potential connection to the Coronavirus by an individual within the school’. 

St Christopher’s C of E High School in Accrington told parents it had to shut. 

A member of staff at William Martin Junior and Infant School came back from a half-term holiday in Italy so is shut as a precaution today. 

Trinity Catholic College in Middlesbrough and Cransley School in Northwich, Cheshire, shut completely on Tuesday so they can be deep cleaned. The Brine Leas Academy, also in Cheshire, shut its sixth form yesterday. 

Three pupils at Torquay Boys’ Grammar School in Devon (left) tested negative for the virus after being sent home feeling ill after a school trip to Italy, and Cambridge House Grammar School (right) in County Atrim, Northern Ireland, sent home around 50 staff and pupils

St Peter’s Church of England Middle School in Windsor closed today for a ‘precautionary clean’ after a pupil returned home from a trip to Italy during half-term. 

Archbishop Temple School in Preston closed and said in a notice on its website that it had an ‘unavoidable closure’ because a ski trip had recently returned from Pila, Italy. 

And pupils and staff at 18 schools in Cornwall, Cheshire, Yorkshire, Berkshire, Pembrokeshire, Liverpool, London, Birmingham and Northern Ireland were sent home to quarantine themselves. 

Professor Paul Cosford, medical director for Public Health England, today admitted the Government does not know how many Brits have come back from skiing trips to the north of Italy but said it was a ‘significant number’.

Hundreds of cases of the virus have been diagnosed in northern Italy since Friday as dozens of school trips made their way home after half-term trips.    

Some headteachers have taken evasive action and shut down schools after staff and students came down with ‘mild flu-like symptoms’ after returning from the Alps.

Others have sent home the pupils and staff who went on the trips to Italy, where 11 towns are now in government lockdown. 

While many have decided to stay open, telling pupils they must come in unless they have clear symptoms of the killer virus – a move which has angered some parents.  

Public Health England is not advising schools to close and Health Secretary Matt Hancock told MPs today: ‘If anyone has been in contact with a suspected case in a childcare or an educational setting, no special measures are required while test results are awaited.

‘There is no need to close the school or send other students or staff home. Once the results arrive, those who test negative will be advised individually about returning to education.

‘In most cases, closure of the childcare or education setting will be unnecessary, but this will be a local decision based on various factors including professional advice.

‘Our goal here is to try to keep schools open wherever we can so long as that protects the public. In fact, our wider goal is to have the minimum disruption, social and economic and indeed to the NHS subject to keeping the public safe.’ 

Some schools also reported that they closed immediately for a deep clean following Department of Health and PHE advice.  

Contradictory messages from the government have led to widespread confusion and caused individual headteachers to take matters into their own hands.

In terms of sporting events Ireland’s Six Nations clash with Italy in Dublin has been called off amid fears over the coronavirus.

The deadly epidemic has swept through northern parts of Italy, and in a bid to prevent the disease reaching their shores, the Irish government have taken the step to postpone the game on March 7.

Both the women’s Six Nations and Under 20s clashes have also been cancelled.

IRFU chief Philip Browne revealed they are working with the Six Nations in an attempt to find a date to reschedule the fixtures, but there are no details on when that may be.

In his statement, Browne said: ‘We had a very positive meeting with [Irish health minister] Mr [Simon] Harris and his advisors where we requested an instruction as to the staging of the Ireland.

England’s Six Nations match in Rome in a fortnight is still scheduled to go ahead. 

The FA will today hold urgent talks over the impact of the coronavirus on England’s Wembley friendly with Italy next month.

Senior staff will sit down at the national stadium to talk through the problems associated with the fixture after the outbreak increased in northern Italy.

The European Commission, which enforces the rule book for the open-border Schengen Area, encouraged countries to adopt measures based on scientific evidence and ‘in coordination and not in a fragmented way’, a spokeswoman said.

Symptoms include a cough, fever and shortness of breath. 

MailOnline has contacted the school and Kensington Palace was unavailable for comment this evening.