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Victoria reported 10,053 COVID-19 cases and eight deaths on Monday as students returned to their classrooms for the first time since the start of the Omicron wave.
Health authorities are bracing for an increase in coronavirus cases as a result, with Premier Daniel Andrews conceding on Sunday that the first few weeks of school would be “challenging and messy”. But he said the benefits would outweigh the challenges.
School students have been asked to do two rapid tests a week in the first four weeks of term one.Credit:Paul Rovere
“I think that going back to school, there will be cases and that will obviously add to our tally, but the benefits of having school back far outweigh those sorts of challenges,” Mr Andrews said.
“It’s not easy, but our staff, our students and school communities, everyone’s working as hard as they can.”
Hospitals are bracing for a surge in children arriving at emergency departments with coronavirus symptoms. Doctors are reporting a growing number of COVID-positive young children presenting to hospital with croup – an infection of the upper airway that appears to be a feature of the Omicron variant.
The state government has distributed more than 4 million rapid antigen tests to public, Catholic, and independent schools over the past week, enough kits for students and staff to get tested twice per week for two weeks.
Among those pushing back their family’s return to school is Royal Children’s Hospital coronavirus clinical director Sarah McNab, who had positive rapid antigen tests returned in her household on Sunday.
“We decided to do the school RATs the evening before to reduce the morning chaos,” Dr McNab wrote on social media alongside a photo of three positive tests. “No school this week for us!”
The Education Department has set a hard deadline of March 15 for staff to get a booster shot of a COVID-19 vaccine. Those who don’t abide by that deadline will be barred from on-site working.
School guidance had previously given those staff a looser deadline of three months and two weeks from their second dose to get a booster.
The booster deadline was set as 374 inactive or retired teachers and principals entered a pool of stand-by staff for schools bracing for a potential teacher shortage if Omicron cases spike again.
About 37.5 per cent of children aged five to 11 have received one vaccine dose. A small number of immuno-compromised children have also had a second jab.
More than 16,298 Victorians received a dose of a COVID-19 vaccine at a state-run clinic on Sunday, taking the percentage of triple-vaccinated Victorians to 93 per cent.
There are 873 Victorians infected with the virus being treated in hospitals across the state, including 102 in intensive care and 33 on a ventilator.
Of the new cases announced by authorities on Monday, 3568 came from PCR tests, and 6485 were self-reported from rapid antigen tests.
There are currently 76,335 active coronavirus infections across Victoria, a small number of which have been confirmed by authorities as an emerging sub-strain of the Omicron variant known as BA.2 which appears to be more transmissible.
However, scientists are pleading for calm, saying the sub-strain is unlikely to cause a huge wave of disease in the same vein as the Delta and Omicron variants, and has not shown signs of being any more vaccine-evasive than its sister variant.
“Nothing ominous has come out so far. There is no reason to panic,” said Professor Seshadri Vasan, who has been tracking COVID-19’s variants at the CSIRO.
With Melissa Cunningham, Liam Mannix, Adam Carey and Ashleigh McMillan
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