A mum-of-three has expressed her relief that schools are closing after most of her family were struck down by coronavirus.

Now Samantha Heath is warning all parents to keep their children indoors as the spread of the virus escalates.

Ms Heath, of Burgoyne Heights, Dover, said:" I truly believe the increase of cases was caused by the reopening of schools

"I work in early years and we cannot socially distance.

"The little ones sneeze on you and don't understand what's happening.

"Just because they are young it doesn't mean they can't pass the virus onto staff who then take it home to their families."

At 8pm last night Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a third national lockdown.

He ordered primary schools, secondaries and colleges to move to remote teaching for the majority of students from today (Tuesday).

This meant primary pupils in Dover district returned to classes for just one day after the school Christmas holiday.

They will stay away at least until the February half term holiday.

Ms Heath, who works at the Burgoyne Heights Pre-School, explains that her eldest child Jimmy, 11, caught Covid-19 from secondary school on November 30 and passed it to other members of the family.

He, Ms Heath and the second child, Charlie, 10 all tested positive.

The children's father, Michael, 38, was tested too early but but fell poorly two days later.

Only the youngest child Lucy, six, tested negative.

All those struck down are recovering now.

Ms Heath said: "I hope the public use their common sense and keep their children home and safe if they are able to."

She also warned that Jimmy had different Covid-19 symptoms to most, which could have been dismissed as a typical winter virus.

He at first woke up with a pounding headache and slight cough and later had random nose bleeding.

He ended up bedridden for two weeks.

Ms Heath's own symptoms started with itchy eyes and a headache.

All had coughs but not constant and the other classic symptoms of loss of taste and smell did not appear for another five days.

She added: "They reckon you can catch this virus again and I'm worried that next time we will become very ill.

"I'm.still suffering the effects of Covid, having headaches most days, feeling sleepy quite a lot and having achy joints.

" But we are much better and we know we are very lucky."

The number of people who tested positive for coronavirus in a 24-hour period nationally by yesterday reached 58,784.

This is the highest ever figure for a day since the pandemic first gripped the world in March.

A total of 75,431 have died with the virus in the UK in the last 10 months.

These are people who have tested positive in the last 28 days of their lives.

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