Covid rules that have led to hundreds of thousands of pupils missing school despite not being infected have been scrapped.

Gavin Williamson, the education secretary, announced in the Commons this afternoon that the “bubble” system would be ditched, along with face masks, social distancing and staggered starts to the school day. The measures will be replaced with twice-weekly lateral flow tests, to be reviewed in September.

The new rules will apply from 19 July, after intense pressure from head teachers and parents to axe the policy before pupils return for the new school year.

The bursting of the bubble system cannot come soon enough. At the moment, if a pupil tests positive for Covid it could mean a group of up to 100 pupils is forced to spend 10 days at home in isolation. The requirement has meant the number of children off school in England has doubled in a fortnight to a staggering 641,000, of which 471,000 are self-isolating because of the current system. Figures from last week showed that fewer than one in 10 of those off school actually had the virus.