Masks to stay in schools despite experts calling for Covid-19 chiefs to ditch them

Masks will stay for SA secondary students and staff – even though other states have dropped them – but the Premier has for the first time hinted when they may go.

South Australian students must wear a mask when they return to classrooms next week – even though many interstate schools are not enforcing the rule.

Students in years 7-12, their teachers, school staff and adult visitors must all wear masks for the first four weeks of Term 2.

Masks will be “strongly commended” in years 3-6 under the latest ruling by the emergency management council, which met on Tuesday after close contact rules were overhauled last week.

Schools in NSW, Queensland and the Northern Territory have no mask rules. Masks have been dismissed in schools in Britain and almost all US states.

Masks in public SA spots went almost a fortnight ago.

Announcing the decision to keep masks in schools, Premier Peter Malinauskas said he hoped the rule would be lifted from week five.

Sisters Ellie, 12, and Olivia, 9, react to news about masks staying at schools. Picture: Tom Huntley

He blamed the former state government’s poor planning for having to keep masks on, including a failure to carry out works to improve ventilation at 652 schools.

Fewer than a third are completed but sites are secret.

“I don’t like the fact that most adults now don’t have to wear masks … but our school students will,” he said.

Former federal deputy chief medical officer Nick Coatsworth was critical of SA’s school mask rule, which he said was of “little benefit” to a narrow group of children.

“Public health is about being considered and logical,” the infectious diseases physician said. “Masks for groups of kids is not logical.”

Sacred Heart College principal Steve Byrne said the rule would create normal “passive resistance” with teenagers.

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“You can go to your sports clubs and not wear a mask but go to school and you do,” he said. Australian Education Union SA branch president Andrew Gohl said it was “common sense” and called for support in policing rules.

The Education Department said schools would manage discipline at a “local level”.

Taxpayers will spend $530,000 buying 1000 air purifiers for classrooms despite chief public health officer Nicola Spurrier last year advising that it was of “limited benefit”.

Education Minister Blair Boyer said SA had the “most disrupted term 1 of any jurisdiction in Australia”.

Opposition education spokesman John Gardner said Labor wanted to “pass the buck for failure”.

Getting ready to return to school with masks on, Immanuel College sisters Ellie, 12, and Olivia, 9, said they were annoying but helped stop Covid spreading.

Meanwhile, at least 40 school vaccination hubs will launch next term, focusing on Adelaide’s north and south and country areas with poor rates. Just 38 per cent of 148,253 eligible students aged five to 11 are double jabbed.

New Adelaide University modelling shows more than 2000 average daily cases will be recorded by June 20 after masks, and close contact isolation restrictions disappear.

Hospital cases will fluctuate from 180 to 200 patients. Health Minister Chris Picton said the system would cope.

He said the state was “on track” to ease close contact restrictions on Saturday.

“(This will) bring a lot of relief to many South Australians,” Mr Picton said.

Under the new definition, close contacts will be required to wear masks, undertake five rapid antigen tests within one week and will be banned from high-risk settings.

Mr Picton also urged close contacts to use “common sense” when applying the new rules. “This is not the time to go to nightclubs, this is not the time to go to weddings, this is not the time to go to gyms.”

Mr Gardner said Labor had argued for a dramatic increase in the use of air purifiers in January but managed to add another 1000 systems to 4000 already in schools.

“Peter Malinauskas needs to own his decisions – many schools have shut their doors and tens of thousands of students have had their learning impacted by increasing Covid cases since he became Premier more than a month ago,” he said.

“(He) has claimed credit for the removal of every Covid restriction that has given more freedoms to our community, but wants to pass the buck for Labor’s failure to develop a plan for removing the requirement for masks in schools.”

In SA, there have been seven more Covid-related deaths in the past 24 hours – men and women in their 70s, 80s and 90s.

There were 3563 new cases, which is an additional 288 cases recorded on Monday. It continues the trend of wildly fluctuating daily infections. Another seven patients have been admitted to hospital.

There are 254 people in hospital, 10 of whom are in ICU. Of the intensive care patients, one person is in an induced coma on a ventilator.