英国教育大臣近日表示，英国的学生们在9月开始的新学年将按照年级和班级分成“气泡”，课程和活动时间各不相同，以避免感染新冠病毒。但相关人士表示，这种“气泡”隔离实施难度极大。
Children are seen washing their hands at Heath Mount School as some schools reopen, following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), Watton-at-Stone, Britain, June 2, 2020. [Photo/Agencies]
School pupils in England will be grouped into "bubbles" when the new academic year starts in September, with mass activities such as assemblies discouraged under new regulations announced by Education Secretary Gavin Williamson on Thursday.
按照英国教育大臣加文·威廉姆森本周四（7月2日）宣布的新规定，新学年9月开始时，英国的学生将被分成不同的“气泡”组，并且不鼓励学生集会等群体活动。
He revealed the plan to Parliament and then expanded on it in the first Downing Street media conference called since daily briefings on the novel coronavirus outbreak were abandoned.
他向议会透露了这一计划，并在英国政府召开的媒体会议上进行了详细阐述。这是关于新冠疫情的每日简报会被取消后英国政府召开的第一次媒体会议。
Schools were shut down in March. Currently around 1.6 million of the country's 9 million school-age children are back in the classroom, but the government says a proper return in September is "critical to our national recovery" and attendance will be compulsory.
英国的学校在3月份停课。目前，全英900万学龄儿童中大约有160万复课，但政府表示，9月份重返校园“对英国的复苏至关重要”，学校将实行强制返校制度。
Social distancing will not be applied in schools, and masks will not be worn, but instead so-called bubbles, based on avoiding contact between individual classes or year groups, will be deployed. This will mean separate start and finish times, and also different times for lunch and playtime.
学校不会要求师生们保持社交距离，也不会要求师生们戴口罩，取而代之的是所谓的“气泡”，旨在避免每个班级或年级之间的接触。这意味着不同班级的课程和活动开始及结束时间不同，午餐和娱乐时间也不同。
Pupils will be discouraged from using public transport, which could bring many other challenges. Mobile testing units will be sent to schools which have an outbreak, and schools will have testing kits to give parents if required, but if there are two confirmed cases in 14 days, potentially the whole school could be shut down.
学校不鼓励学生乘坐公共交通工具，这可能会带来许多其他挑战。流动检测设备将被送往暴发疫情的学校，如果有需要，学校将为家长提供检测包，但如果14天内出现两例确诊病例，整个学校可能会关闭。
London streets were very quiet during lockdown. Simon Dawson / REUTERS
"I want to reassure parents and families that we are doing everything we can to make sure schools, nurseries, colleges and other providers are as safe as possible for children and staff, and will continue to work closely with the country's best scientific and medical experts to ensure that is the case," said Williamson.
威廉姆森说：“我想向父母和家庭保证，我们正竭尽所能，确保学校、托儿所、高校和其他供应商对孩子们和教职员工来说尽可能安全，并将继续与英国最好的科学和医学专家密切合作，来确保安全。”
Geoff Barton, the general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, told the Guardian newspaper that the practicalities of keeping groups apart would be "mind-boggling."
英国中学和学院领导人协会的秘书长杰夫·巴顿告诉《卫报》，将不同群体隔离开来的可行性“匪夷所思”。
mind-boggling [ˈmaɪnd bɑːɡlɪŋ]：adj.令人难以置信的；令人惊异的
"It will be immediately apparent to anyone reading this guidance that it is enormously challenging to implement," he said. "The logistics of keeping apart many different 'bubbles' of children in a full school, including whole-year groups comprising hundreds of pupils, is mind-boggling."
他说：“任何阅读这一指南的人都会立刻明白，这些措施实施起来极具挑战性。在一所包含初中部的学校里，要把许多不同‘气泡’的孩子们分开，包括数百名学生组成的各个年级，其后勤工作的难度令人难以想象。”
Meanwhile, before the much-anticipated next stage of easing lockdown in England takes place this weekend, the number of COVID-19 cases has risen in 36 local authorities across England.
英格兰民众正热切期待本周末开始的下一阶段解封举措，而在此之前，英格兰36个地区的新冠肺炎病例数量已经上升。
Easing measures have already had to be delayed in the East Midlands city of Leicester, but now other spikes in infection rate are being reported all across England.
在英国东密德兰的莱斯特市，放松措施已经被推迟，据报道，如今英格兰多地的感染率均出现上升。
The areas with the largest increases are Knowsley and Bolton, both in the North West of the country, and the London borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. In Knowsley, close to the city of Liverpool, the rate of infection rose from 6 people out of every 100,000 to 20.
病例增长最快的地区是英格兰西北大区的诺斯利和博尔顿，以及伦敦的哈默史密斯和富勒姆区。在利物浦附近的诺斯利，感染率从每10万人中6人感染上升到20人。
The arts sector in Britain continues to feel the effects of the pandemic, with the Nuffield Theatre in Southampton announcing its closure after 60 years. Other theaters in Plymouth, Manchester and Norwich have already announced mass redundancies as anger grows over a perceived lack of government support for the culture sector.
英国的艺术领域继续受到疫情的影响，南安普敦的纳菲尔德剧院在成立60年后宣布关闭。普利茅斯、曼彻斯特和诺里奇的其他剧院已经宣布大规模裁员，人们为政府对文化领域的支持不够感到愤怒。
In Scotland, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon says face coverings will be compulsory in shops from July 9 as the country continues its progress out of lockdown, and the 2-meter social distancing rule could also be eased.
苏格兰首席部长尼古拉·斯特金表示，自7月9日起，随着英国逐步解除封锁，以及2米的社交距离规定也可能会放宽，商店将强制要求人们戴口罩。
Although the 2-meter rule has already been changed in England to 1 meter plus, the initial advice was kept in Scotland while scientific studies were carried out.
虽然在英格兰，2米的社交距离规则已经改成了1米多，但在相关科学研究有结果之前，苏格兰仍要求保持2米的社交距离。
Sturgeon said that "as the distance between people decreases, the risk of transmitting the virus increases", and that overall, the "general advice will remain unchanged" but because of the economic impact of applying that across all situations, a 1-meter rule would be applied to "specific sectors" where other safety measures could also be deployed.
斯特金说：“人们之间的社交距离减少，传播病毒的风险就会增加”，从总体上看，“普遍建议将保持不变”。但由于在所有场合实施这一措施对经济的影响，在“特定行业中”，将实行保持1米社交距离的措施，也可以同时实施其他安全措施。
The 2-meter rule is also to be scrapped for children under the age of 12 when mixing with other households.
12岁以下儿童与其他家庭的成员在一起时，保持2米社交距离的规定也将取消。
As from next week, dozens of countries look set to be exempt from the United Kingdom's travel quarantine measures as the government's initial mass restrictions are largely repealed.
从下周开始，随着政府最初的大规模限制措施大量被废除，英国或将免除几十个国家入境旅客的检疫要求。
英文来源：中国日报
翻译&编辑：yaning
