More than 140 schools across England have been forced to send pupils home due to positive cases of Covid-19, HuffPost UK has found.

Despite most schools only just coming to an end of their second week of classes, a review of some of the UKs leading local and regional newspapers found that that dozens of schools had sent bubbles of children home following a positive test result from a pupil.

One of the main provisions in the governments school reopening guidance is that pupils must be organised into bubbles, which avoid overcrowding and help staff maintain social distancing throughout the day.

They are also designed to manage outbreaks, with the entire bubble self-isolating if a pupil tests positive. While bubbles were encouraged in the guidance, no rules were set out by government on how they should be formed which means the groupings range from the size of just one class to hundreds of pupils across an entire year group.

It means that while dozens of positive tests have been reported among school pupils and staff members, the number of children forced to stay at home and self-isolate is now hundreds of times that figure.

According to the Manchester Evening News, thousands of children across the city alone have already been sent home to self-isolate, with 55 schools confirming positive cases of the virus as of Thursday evening .

Meanwhile, an interactive map updated by Birmingham Live shows 29 schools which have reported positive cases of Covid-19, with groups of pupils from each school also sent home to self-isolate as per the governments advice.

Leeds Live reported on Tuesday that 10 schools had reported positive cases, among both staff and pupils, meaning bubbles of pupils across different year groups also had to be sent home.