NSW and Victorian governments have unveiled their back-to-school plans, with a focus on rapid antigen tests and masks, while they remain adamant schools will reopen on Friday.
NSW and Victorian governments say school will resume from 28 January despite a surge in cases over the holiday period Photo: 123rf
While students and teachers in NSW will be required to take two rapid antigen tests a week, those in Victoria are "strongly recommended" to do so.
All will be subject to mask mandates when school returns for term 1.
NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet and Education Minister Sarah Mitchell unveiled the government's much anticipated return-to-school plan on Sunday morning, which was presented to national cabinet days earlier.
"We're ready for a Covid smart start to 2022 and there is a range of measures we will have in place to ensure to ensure that our parents and students will feel confident from day one," Mitchell said.
She said more than 6 million rapid antigen tests (RATs) would be delivered to 3000 schools by Tuesday evening, with each student and teacher being required to be tested twice a week.
The kits are also being distributed for teachers at over 5500 early childhood centres.
Mask wearing will be mandatory for teachers and secondary students, while being highly recommended for pupils in Year 3 and above in primary school.
Mitchell said health authorities would no longer be conducting contact tracing and would no longer be closing schools when there was a positive case.
Parents would be required to tell the school principal if their child tests positive and other parents within that cohort would then be advised of the case.
Mitchell said there would also be several contingencies if an outbreak impacts staffing levels at a school.
The school plans comes as the number of patients being treated in hospital with Covid-19 in NSW had dropped for the third time in a week as the state records 34 deaths.
Of today's fatalities, there were 26 men and eight women who were aged between their 40s and 90s.
Authorities said the total number being treated in hospital has fallen to 2712, down 50 from the previous reporting period.
Patients in intensive care also dropped to 189, down from 204.
A total of 20,324 new cases were reported, taken from 6704 RAT tests and 13,620 PCR swabs.
The government is procuring 150 million RAT tests to support the education sector Photo: 123RF
Despite low vaccination rates of one dose in just over 24 per cent of children aged five to 11 years, Perrottet has deemed January 28 a "non-negotiable" start of Term 1.
"Young children have already missed a quarter of their schooling life," Perrottet said.
He said there would likely be an uptick of cases when schools open but was "incredibly confident" of the blueprint the government has laid out.
"There will be challenges along the way, there is no doubt that there will be times where we need kids, who have tested positive, and will need to study and learn from home," he said.
He added the government would be procuring up to 150 million RAT kits to help support the sector through the Omicron outbreak.
Victoria unveils its back-to-school plan
Twice-weekly rapid antigen tests will be "strongly recommended" for staff and students and teachers will be required to have a booster dose, the Victorian government has revealed as the state unveils its back-to-school plan.
The government will give more than 14 million of the rapid tests to schools and early childhood settings.
Under the plan, the twice-weekly rapid test would be done by all members of the school or childcare setting at home, for at least the first four weeks of term.
Students and staff at specialist schools, where there is often a higher risk of serious illness, will be recommended to test five days a week.
Across the state, 30 school pop-up vaccination sites will also be stood up in a bid to get more young children immunised against Covid-19.
Mask-wearing will continue to mandatory indoors for all students in years 3 and above.
Remote learning will be considered "only as a localised, short-term last resort", the government said.
Like NSW, authorities remain adamant students will return to the classroom on 28 January.
The schools announcement was made as the state recorded the deaths of 14 more people with Covid-19.
Authorities have confirmed the number of people in hospital after contracting the virus sits at 1002, slightly down from 1029 reported on Saturday.
Of the people in hospital with Covid-19, there are 120 in intensive care units, including 44 people receiving ventilation.
There are now at least 191,058 active cases of Covid-19 across the state.
There were 13,091 new infections officially reported on Saturday, continuing a significant downward trend in cases.
However, the real number of new infections in the community could be much higher due to pressure on the testing system and what authorities say could be a number of asymptomatic or undetected cases.
The latest figures came from 6625 PCR test results and 6466 rapid antigen tests.
Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said the peak in cases was "likely behind us".
"ICU cases and deaths haven't peaked, but will hopefully stabilise soon," Professor Sutton said on social media.
The number of people in intensive care units has remained about the same for the past three months.
- ABC