Coronavirus NSW: Rise in cases in schools sees social and sports activities banned

As more NSW schools shut due to virus outbreaks, activities such as inter-school sport have been banned – and formals and graduations could be next.

They’re considered rites of passage for Australia’s senior students, but high school formals and graduations could be banned in New South Wales as the state’s coronavirus situation escalates in its school system.

As the number of COVID-19 cases linked to Sydney Girls High School in Moore Park and Our Lady of Mercy College in Parramatta continues to grow, NSW chief health officer Kerry Chant today had a stark message for the class of 2020.

School-related “social activities”, including inter-school sport, will not be allowed for at least the next six weeks to prevent or minimise “any mixing of students from schools in different regions”.

“We’re having a particular focus on stopping singing or chanting activities or the use of wind instruments in groups and that is because we have increasingly become aware around the way that droplets and aerosols can be generated by those activities,” Dr Chant said this morning.

“Also school-related social activities, school formals, dinners and dances and graduation ceremonies or parent engagement functions should cease and also school-related overnight events such as retreats, camps, excursions as there is obviously an increased risk of transmission in these residential-type exposures that are a consequence of those activities.”

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NSW chief health officer Kerry Chant has banned ‘school-based social activities’ for the next six weeks as the state grapples with a number of coronavirus outbreaks. Picture: Jenny Evans/Getty Images

Sydney Girls High School in Moore Park. Picture: Steven Saphore/NCA NewsWire

The bans – particularly those in relation to inter-school sporting competitions – are in place, Dr Chant explained, to try to “limit the movements of people across our regions from around our metropolitan areas and also prevent inter-competitions that might involve our country cousins coming down to Sydney”.

“So this is the idea we’re trying to achieve is just reduce the risk of seeding events in rural, regional or seeding across areas of NSW,” Dr Chant said.

“Some of the other recommendations pick up on some of the transmission modes that we have encountered. We’re still observing that in some settings, more than the required number of parents are attending some of the events.

“The smaller the size of the events, the less risk you get COVID introduced and the less risk of you having potentially initiated further spread. So what the advice does is reflect on some of the cases we have seen recently and it also is done with the spirit of trying to make sure that our schools can maintain their onsite learning.”

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The “safety” of students at school has remained a contentious issue since the pandemic began in Australia, but Dr Chant denied it had been “overstated” despite the outbreaks in NSW schools and others around the nation.

“We have always said that children can catch COVID, so I have always been very careful that (schools) are safe environments, but they’re not necessarily free of COVID,” she said.

“We have done all we can to make them as safe as possible, but we do know that particularly younger children tend to have very mild disease and also don’t transmit.

“What we recognise – and that’s been increasingly recognised – is that the older children, particularly as they get around the ages of Year 11 and 12, tend to behave more as adults, young adults in terms of their risk of transmission, but having said that, they’re also of an age where they can comply with social distancing. They’re not as mobile, they can comply, and, therefore, we think that schools will put in place a different set of strategies for that cohort.”

Premier Gladys Berejiklian apologised “in advance to parents and school communities if this causes them further restrictions, but it is to maintain our ability to have less disruption as possible for parents and children and teachers and principals”.

“And I also wanted to extend in particular my thoughts to Year 11 and 12 students,” Ms Berejiklian added.

“I had reports about extra cases of mental health and channels for people who are sitting the HSC and sitting those final years of schooling and please know we’re doing everything we can to lessen the burden and support you during this time.”