The NSW government has unveiled its long-awaited roadmap for schools to return to face-to-face teaching, as the state recorded 882 Covid-19 cases and two deaths.
A health worker collects swab samples from a resident at a Covid-19 testing clinic in Sydney. Photo: AFP
The schools announcement comes as two men, aged in their 60s and 90s, died from COVID-19 during yesterday's reporting period.
Both men had one dose of the vaccine, and had underlying health conditions.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said a significant number of new infections were being detected in Sydney's west and south-west.
"It's actually more than 80 per cent, and we do today also want to call out people living in the local government area of Camden and people living in the rest of the local government area of Penrith," she said.
The number of Covid-19 infections in NSW (22,157) since the start of the pandemic has now passed Victoria.
The figure includes cases detected in NSW's hotel quarantine program.
Based on locally acquired cases, NSW still trails Victoria by about 1,800 infections.
Return to schools
The state government said students would have a "staggered return" to schools from the end of October and would delay HSC exams until 9 November.
It also announced vaccinations for school staff would be mandatory by 8 November, with priority for jabs given to them from 6 September.
NSW Education Minister Sarah Mitchell said the plan was to return students into classrooms in a "safe and sensible way".
"I'm excited we have a plan to have our students back in the classroom and I'm sure teachers would agree [as well as] parents, who I know many are doing their best learning from home but it can be a bit of a challenge," Ms Mitchell said.
Kindergarten and Year 1 students will be the first to return on 25 October, followed by Year 2, 6 and 11 students on 1 November.
The remainder of students will be able to return from 8 November.
Year 12 students already have limited access to school campuses for the remainder of term three, but will return full time from 25 October.
More to come...
- ABC