Schools in England are likely to remain closed until the Easter holidays, health secretary Matt Hancock has said.

He said he hopes schools will be able to reopen by Easter, but it will depend on Covid-19 data.

“I would hope so,” Hancock said, when asked during an interview on Sky News if schools would be open then.

It is also understood that education secretary Gavin Williamson is set to rule out the full reopening of schools after the February half-term break.

This means children have to continue home schooling for another three months.

There has been no conclusive decision on when would it be possible to lift the lockdown restrictions in England.

Parents will have to manage their own work alongside almost half a year of home schooling, with schools having broken up for the Christmas break in mid-December.

On January 4, the government announced that schools would close the next day after a short reopening because of high infection rates across the country.

Mr Williamson then said that parents and teachers would be given two weeks notice for the full reopening of schools.

During a round of media interviews yesterday, he insisted there would be no repeat of the shambolic episode at the start of this month when schools were ordered to close just one day after returning from the Christmas break.