NSW Covid: Nine new Omicron cases linked to Regents Park Christian School

NSW has recorded its highest daily spike in Omicron Covid cases with a western Sydney school cluster growing by nine.

NSW has recorded its largest spike of Omicron Covid infections overnight with nine new cases linked to the cluster at a western Sydney private school.

The state now has 26 confirmed cases of Omicron after officials detected a further nine linked to Regents Park Christian School, according to NSW Health.

The school has now been linked to 14 cases of the variant.

Genome sequencing carried out on Sunday 5 December shows an additional nine cases in this cluster carry the Omicron variant. This brings to 14 the total number of Omicron cases linked to the Regent’s Park Omicron cluster.

— NSW Health (@NSWHealth) December 6, 2021

“NSW Health continues to investigate the source of infection of a cluster of Covid-19 cases at Regents Park Christian School, St Peter Chanel Catholic Primary School in Regents Park, and the Sydney Indoor Climbing Gym in Villawood in South Western Sydney,” a statement from NSW Health said.

A further 11 cases have been linked to overseas or international flights, and one ACT resident is believed to have caught Omicron at a climbing gym on November 27.

But authorities said no one has yet needed further treatment for the new strain.

“To date, none of these cases have been admitted to hospital in NSW for treatment of Covid-19,” NSW Health said.

On Monday NSW recorded 208 Covid cases and zero deaths.

On Sunday, 15 cases of Omicron had been detected in NSW, including five linked to two Regents Park schools and a Villawood indoor climbing gym.

One of the cases is a student from St Peter Chanel Catholic Primary School in Regents Park who attended the Sydney Indoor Climbing Gym in Villawood last Saturday.

As a result, all year 3 and 4 students at the school have been deemed close contacts and told to self-isolate.

NSW Health said further tests on Sunday afternoon were likely to identify more cases with the Omicron variant.

It follows a Covid outbreak in Regents Park Christian School, after students visited the climbing gym.

Anyone who was at the gym between 9am and 4.30pm on Saturday, November 27, is also a close contact.

There are five Covid cases linked to these venues in addition to a case in the ACT who likely acquired their infection at the climbing gym.

None of the Omicron cases have required hospitalisation.

The two schools’ outbreaks come as Australia’s health regulator said that with more than one in five of Australia’s Covid-19 cases a child aged under 12, vaccination remains their greatest protection.

Therapeutic Goods Administration head John Skerritt said although children did not generally get as sick from Covid as adults, there were still some “sobering statistics” about the five to 11-year-old cohort of 2.3 million kids in Australia.

“A bit over a fifth of all cases of Covid are actually in the under 12, and indeed some of the early data with Omicron suggests that may actually be highest for Omicron variant,” he said.

“Now while those kids do get a fairly mild infection, and only a limited number end up in ICU, which was great, there are bigger impacts.”

The TGA has approved the use of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine for kids aged 5-11, pending approval from the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation.

The government is hopeful the jabs would roll out from January 10, 2022.

Prof Skerritt said another important reason to get younger children vaccinated was to ensure they could “live a normal life” unimpeded by restrictions.

“The effects on social, educational, sporting and physical development of these kids has been affected by Covid,” he said. “The ability to vaccinate those kids is so that they can return to those activities.”

Cars lining up for Covid testing. Picture: Tim Pascoe

Health Minister Greg Hunt said that now the TGA had approved the Pfizer vaccine for children aged 5-11 at a lower dosage, he was confident ATAGI would also recommend all kids in that age group received the jab.

Mr Hunt said he was confident the jab would be available to all 2.3 million children in the age group by January 10.

A man in his 60s from south eastern Sydney has died with Covid at St George Hospital.

He was fully vaccinated, and had underlying health conditions.

There were 286 new Covid cases reported on Sunday from almost 66,700 tests.