Covid cases emerge as school returns, jabs urged for kids

Parents are being told by health experts to prepare for a “bumpy ride” as students return to school and case numbers rise.

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Parents are being told by health experts to prepare for a “bumpy ride” for the next month as students return to school and case numbers rise.

Schools such as Luther College in Croydon are already experiencing outbreaks, with five students across five year levels and a teacher testing positive since orientation began last week.

Carey Grammar also reported two cases in two year levels on Monday.

Infection levels will be hard to track centrally as the government is no longer publishing major case data for schools.

Education Minister James Merlino ruled out a return to remote learning, promising it will only be “an absolute last resort for a particular school who are having significant challenges with staffing for example”.

The State Government is distributing 6.6 million Rapid Antigen Tests (RATS) and asking parents to test their children twice a week before class.

Parents with children at Luther College in Croydon have been told five students across five year levels and a teacher has Covid. Picture: Google Street View

Many schools in the public and private sector hadn’t distributed the tests prior to the first day of class, which Murdoch Children’s Research Institute Associate Professor Margie Danchin said was “disappointing” but expected.

“In an ideal world each student would be tested before they went back to school. But here is no one perfect strategy,” she said.

“The most important message is that if symptoms emerge then students don’t go back to school.

“It will be a bumpy three to four weeks but it will be worth it as we’ve got everything in place – ventilation, vaccination and testing,” Associate Professor Danchin said.

Australia’s deputy chief medical officer, Professor Michael Kidd, said Covid cases would rise with surveillance testing of students beginning this week.

“Therefore, the more testing we do, we can expect to pick up more cases of infection in people with no symptoms or very mild symptoms,” he said.

Parents at Luther College received messages from Principal Jacqui Layfield on January 27 advising them that a student attending year seven orientation activities on Monday 24 January had tested positive.

Another student in year nine and a teacher tested positive after attending classes last Thursday and Friday.

Covid-positive students in years eight, 11 and 12 attended class last Thursday as well.

Ms Layfield told parents that “it is possible students and staff in attendance at that time may have been exposed to covid-19”.

“If you have covid-19 symptoms, please do not attending campus, isolate immediately and use a Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) or get a PCR if you can’t access a RAT.

“Do not return to campus unless you are symptom-free,’’ she wrote.

Government rules recommend parents use RAT tests issued by schools to test students twice a week regardless of symptoms.

The State Government is no longer reporting large outbreaks of more than ten cases in settings such as schools. But principals are required to tell parents about all positive cases at school, the year level and the time of exposure.

CRITICAL JAB WINDOW LOOMS FOR KIDS

Younger children are the least likely among those of primary school age to have had at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine.

New figures released by the Department of Health show that since jabs were opened for five to 11-year-olds on January 10 more than 230,000 have received their first dose.

But the older they are, the more likely they are to be vaccinated.

While 15.6 per cent, or more than 36,000 of those jabbed were 11-year-olds the numbers slide backwards in every age group from there.
The number of five-year-olds jabbed sits at just 12.4 per cent, or more than 28,500.

It comes as families have been urged to use this critical window before winter to get their children vaccinated.

Victoria’s Deputy Premier has detailed a “window of opportunity” for the state’s children to guard against Covid this winter.

James Merlino made the announcement while opening Port Melbourne Secondary College on Monday morning.

He said getting kids across the state double dosed as quickly as possible was paramount for keeping a sense of normality in schools after two years of disruptions.

“I’d like to see (vaccinations) taken up as quickly as possible,” he said.
“I’ve spoken a number of times about the really critical window of opportunity that we have in the southern hemisphere. If we get our kids double-dosed before we head into winter, that is going to be critically important, so I was really encouraged about the last couple of days.”
A total of 44 per cent of children aged five to 11 have received at least one Covid jab, up from 42 per cent on Sunday.

Mr Merlino said while it was a “huge effort” to get children vaccinated within three weeks of the five to 11-year-old age bracket becoming eligible, he warned parents not to become complacent ahead of winter.

Now is the time to vaccinate five to 11 year olds before winter. Picture: Brendan Radke

Mr Merlino also ruled out widespread remote learning, saying the state was now beyond that phase of the pandemic.

“Remote learning, that is an absolute last resort for a particular school who are having significant challenges with staffing, for example,” he said.

“Those students who are at home, whether they’re isolating or whether it’s in relation to a very short period for that school, teaching and learning materials will be provided.

“But in terms of statewide remote learning, broad remote learning, we are beyond that.

“It’s all about getting our students back to face-to-face learning in front of their teachers and with their peers and friends … we want this year to be as low on disruption as we can possibly make it.”

CONCERNS OVER SLOW BOOSTER UPTAKE

While Victoria’s new case numbers appear to be declining, with 10,053 recorded on Monday, the update of Covid booster shots has been the slowest so far in Melbourne’s outer suburbs.

Seven out of ten residents are yet to come forward.

Only 38 per cent of Victorians have had received their booster, while 93 per cent had been double-jabbed.

A total of 873 people are fighting the virus in hospital, 102 in intensive care and 33 on ventilators.

The Herald Sun can reveal uptake of the third jab has been the slowest in Hume, where only 26 per cent of the 177,817 residents aged over 18 have received it.

Jenny Pyke, from The Hat Project, gives the thumbs-up to her Covid booster shot. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

As of midnight Saturday, the booster vaccination rate was 29 per cent in the local government areas of Melton, Melbourne and Whittlesea.

While barely one in three in Brimbank, Casey, Cardinia, Dandenong, La Trobe and Wyndham have had a booster.

The national expert immunisation panel is soon expected to finalise its advice on whether the third dose should be compulsory for people to be considered fully vaccinated.

In Victoria, the booster shot is already mandated for essential frontline workers in industries including healthcare, emergency services, education, quarantine and food distribution.

But Daniel Andrews is pushing to extend it across the state’s vaccinated economy, in a move that would make the booster a condition of entry at public places, including pubs, restaurants and major events.

Victorians have been able to get their third dose three months after their second shot at state-run vaccination hubs since January 19. From Monday, the three-month time frame will also apply at GP clinics and pharmacies.

As of October 31, 80.34 per cent of Victorians aged over 16 were fully vaccinated — totalling 4.3 million people — while 91.72 per cent had received one Covid jab.

About 38.7 per cent of Victorians over 18 had received three Covid vaccine doses by Sunday.

Data obtained by the Herald Sun reveals booster rates are lagging in outer suburban areas where residents were slower to receive their first two doses, in part because of a younger demographic and an initial lack of vaccination sites compared to other parts of Melbourne.

Premier Daniel Andrews has warned booster jabs may be mandated for all Victorians Picture: David Crosling

The Queenscliffe area had the highest rate of residents with booster shots at 68 per cent.

At least half of people over 18 in the local government areas of Bayside, Boroondara, Central Goldfields, Hepburn, Mount Alexander and the Surf Coast have also received their third jabs.

The Premier said last week that there was a “very strong argument” to require the booster shot as a condition of entry, although the state government is yet to explain how this change would be implemented.

“People can safely assume that this would be a continuation of the current settings. It won’t be that there will be a whole new area that we try to cover,” Mr Andrews said.

“It just makes sense to me that if that’s good for two doses, and the experts tell us that three doses really is critically important than those rules would logically apply for three doses.”

“That’s not done yet … but I think it’s fair to assume that it’ll be very, very similar. Where two is to get a green tick, it’ll be three.”

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said he would not pre-empt the expert immunisation panel’s advice. He encouraged all Australians to get the third dose, but said it would be up to the states and territories to determine if that would be an extra requirement.