Will NSW schools be open next week? Five words that will crush parents

Just days out from the planned start of Term 3, health authorities uttered five words that will put fear in the hearts of all Sydney parents.

NSW officials have fallen short of providing hotly anticipated answers on whether schools will return for Term 3 as planned from next week.

Greater Sydney’s two-week coronavirus lockdown is due to be lifted midnight Friday, but it seems there is intensifying doubt restrictions will be eased on schedule.

The volatile situation has done little to ease the minds of those running busy households, with chief health officer Kerry Chant on Monday articulating five words likely to crush working parents.

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NSW chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant said a decision on school returning next week had not been made. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Gaye Gerard

When pressed for a deadline on school reopening, Dr Chant told reporters, “that is for another time”.

“We are monitoring the situation regularly. We will provide regular updates to government and government is considering, and keeping a close eye on, how the situation evolves,” she said.

“I think our focus at the moment is those key messages of getting everyone tested, please, with the most minimal of symptoms.”

The finer details of how a return-to-school process would unfold under coronavirus restrictions had also yet to be ironed out, Dr Chant said.

“I will provide my advice through the government processes but we have worked hand in glove with education right throughout this, we have engaged also with the independent and Catholic sectors and we will be keeping them updated,” she said.

“Clearly those decisions are yet to be made but as a general sense, some of the things that we have looked at are things that we have had in place earlier.”

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Swarms of people flocked to Rushcutters Bay Park in Sydney on Sunday despite the stay-at-home order. Picture: Jenny Evans/Getty Images

Minimising contact of parents during school drop-offs, preventing parent functions and gatherings, and minimising school grade mixing were some strategies being floated, Dr Chant said.

“All of those strategies, that I think parents will have remembered from various points in the response, are some of the strategies that have stood us in good stead and I think they’re the sorts of things that would be informing policy thinking.”

NSW confirmed 35 new Covid-19 cases overnight, bringing the total number of cases in the outbreak to 312.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian expressed some early optimism last week that the two-week lockdown would end on time.

After recording 22 new cases on Wednesday, Ms Berejiklian said if the situation continued tracking a similar path, Sydneysiders would be freed as planned.

“I just remind everybody that if we continue to do the right thing, if we make sure we are following the health advice, that we can get out of this in the time-frame we’ve described,” she said at the time.

NSW recorded 35 new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 in the 24 hours to 8pm last night.

Of these locally acquired cases, 33 are linked to a known case or cluster – 20 are household contacts – and the source of infection for two cases remain under investigation. pic.twitter.com/EzivfeHPrP

— NSW Health (@NSWHealth) July 5, 2021

There has since however been several days where more than 30 cases have been reported, with any notable decline in numbers still yet to occur.

The premier predicted on Friday there would be higher case levels before the positive impact of lockdown was revealed in numbers.

“We are anticipating there could be an increase in numbers over the next few days … hopefully early next week we should see the impact of the lockdown really turning and having a positive impact,” she said.

The state recorded 16 new cases on Sunday and 35 on Saturday.