An Auckland school is going back to online learning for the last four days of this term, as winter illness wreaks havoc on staff and student numbers.
File photo. Photo: 123rf.com
Covid-19 modellers have warned the country could be seeing the start of a second wave of Omicron, due to the more transmissible BA.5 variant.
Carmel College principal Chris Allen told First Up dealing with staff and student illness had been more difficult in recent weeks than during the first two years of the pandemic.
"We've got to the stage now in the last few days, we've needed relievers for the relievers. People are just dropping like flies and we can't sustain this level of providing care in the school. We've decided that it's time to actually do it online."
She was hopeful the time away from campus would act as a circuit breaker.
"It gives the teachers and the students time to refresh time to get better because some of them are dragging themselves to school because they don't want to miss out."
The school had been averaging about 25 percent absences a day for staff and students, she said.
She said staff were "very tired".
"Obviously doing everything they can for the students to make sure that they don't miss out, but it just comes at quite a toll to them and their families to be doing all of this extra work."
"We've needed relievers for the relievers" - Carmel College principal Chris Allen
University of Auckland infectious disease expert Dr Siouxsie Wiles said another wave had been expected and should not come as a surprise. She said rising case numbers could be seen around the world, as immunity waned and new variants emerged.
Officials, including Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, had pointed to it multiple times throughout the year.