Covid-19 update: School to start on February 7, 18,000 new cases

Queensland’s school year will begin on February 7, with schools open from January 31. It comes as the state records another 18,000 new Covid-19 cases and authorities announce changes surrounding essential workers to keep the state running.

Queensland’s school year will move from January 24 to February 7, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has announced.

It comes as 18,000 new Covid-19 cases have been recorded, more than 4000 from people who are registering the results of rapid antigen tests at home.

There are 402 people in hospital, including 22 in ICU and five who are on ventilators.

Chief health officer Dr John Gerrard said the number of people in hospital requiring treatment for Covid-19 would rise soon as it spreads in to older age groups.

“The projections are that the number of people accessing healthcare will escalate substantially from some time about a week from now and it will continue to rise until the beginning of February.”

There will also be changes from midday today to rules around close contacts, designed to keep critical staff available to their workplaces.

Senior high school children will begin remote learning from Monday, January 31, and the remaining school cohort will have an extra week of school at the end of the year, with school to end on December 16.

Qld Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and chief health officer Dr John Gerrard during a Sunday morning media conference. Picture: Liam Kidston

“The projections are at the moment that NSW and Victoria will reach their peaks before Queensland,” she said

Queensland cases are expected to peak in the last week of January or first week of February.

She said it was “not desirable” for children to go back to school during this time. However, processes will be in place for essential workers to send their children to school.

Ms Palaszczuk made the announcement after a state disaster management meeting this morning.

Education Minister Grace Grace said the government would have “loved nothing more than to have face-to-face learning” but this was a commonsense decision to allow more time for children to be vaccinated.

It would impact all schools and sessional kindergarten.

Ms Grace said only year 11s and 12s would be remote learning, with the rest of children getting an extended holiday period.

Children of essential workers and those considered vulnerable would be able to attend schools from the previous term one start date.

Education Minister Grace Grace said the government would have “loved nothing more than to have face-to-face learning” but this was a commonsense decision to allow more time to give children time to be vaccinated and avoid the Omicron peak.

She said the government realised this year would be disrupted by outbreaks at schools and staff who couldn’t come to work due to being sick themselves and wanted to give some certainty to the beginning of school.

It would impact all schools and sessional kindergarten.

She said only year 11s and 12s would be remote learning during that time, with the rest of children getting an extended holiday period.

Children of essential workers and those considered vulnerable would be able to attend schools from the previous term one start date.

Ms Grace said children who are attending schools will be provided with supervision, but won’t be taught classes. She said parents could conduct lessons from home if they wished, but there was no requirement to.

Ms Grace said teachers would not need to take an extension of their holidays, and would be working very hard to get prepared for the school year.

Ms Grace could not say whether the delay might be extended if required.

“I don’t think there’s guarantees now for anything,” she said.

Ms Grace said health advice was that even one dose for children would provide them good protection before they began their school year.

Queensland’s school year will now kick off on February 7, but Education Minister Grace Grace said there were no guarantees that might not change. Picture: AAP Image/Dan Peled

Changes have also been announced to secure the food supply to Queenslanders for close contacts who are asymptomatic.

Ms Palaszcuk said workers at power stations, teachers, water sewerage supplies, agriculture and fisheries and health workers would be able to go to work if they were a close contact but had no symptoms.

She said the state had to be able to keep running.

Queensland’s cases jumped by 18,000 in the 24 hours to 7pm Saturday, which includes people who have taken at-home rapid antigen tests for the first time.

The Premier said 230,000 RATs had been given out through state testing clinics and vaccine appointments for five- to 11-year-old children will begin Monday.

Dr Gerrard said 4320 of the new cases had been reported by people who had taken RATs.

He said it was fantastic to have so many people using the system.

“It gives us some idea of the true number out there testing positive,” he said.

“But it’s also important because it enables us to put them into our care systems.”

Dr Gerrard said the next few weeks would be a challenge, particularly on the health care system.

He said there were 22 people in ICU, five of which were ventilated.

However, those who are not ventilated are “somewhat sicker” than they have been in previous times, he said.

Dr Gerrard said he “implored” those people who can take their booster now to do so.

“Please, please get your booster now. It will protect you against severe disease,” he said.

On the close contact changes for essential workers, Health Minister Yvette D’Ath said critical industry workers under a list to be released would be impacted.

She said not all workers in those industries would be allowed to go to work, but those whose jobs were considered absolutely critical could.

chief health officer Dr John Gerrard said there were now 22 people in ICU, five of those people requiring ventilation. File picture: Annette Dew

Industries would need to submit a list of those workers to government and those workers must travel to work in personal transport, wear PPE at all times, and had to undertake a day-six test.

They would not be allowed to travel anywhere except work.

If at any point they experienced symptoms, they would need to go back into hard quarantine.

“We have empty shelves in supermarkets right now because of the numbers of people in the community now who are positive but also because of those who are close contacts,” she said.

Ms D’ath said the teachers category in critical industries would include all years in schools and kindergarten.

It will also include early childhood teachers working in childcare.

It comes after the state recorded 11,174 new cases on Saturday, the third consecutive day that infections have topped 10,000.

Authorities also confirmed the deaths of two men in their 30s as a result of Covid-19.

That daily figure did not include RAT results – which are expected to bring a huge jump.

Victoria, for example, had its daily case tally jump from 21,728 to 51,356 on Saturday after including RAT test results in the official figures for the first time.

Victoria and NSW have today confirmed combined case numbers of 74,000.

NSW recorded 30,062 new cases and reported the deaths of 16 more people.

There were 44,155 new Covid-19 cases reported in Victoria and four more deaths.

Earlier, Ms Palaszczuk provided an update on Queensland’s weather emergency.

Ms Palaszczuk said there were still grave concerns for a missing teenager who was swept away in floodwaters.

“We do have concerns for the missing 14-year-old girl at the moment. Our thoughts are with her family at this stage,” she said.

She said that the weather is expected to ease now, although there is the threat of a cyclone in the state’s far north.

At Maryborough, the Mary River is expected to peak at 10.5 metres on Sunday night, with as many as 80 homes expected to be inundated.

Originally published as Covid-19 update: School to start on February 7, 18,000 new cases