Spiralling virus cases increase pressure on schools

It comes as SA recorded 5496 new cases yesterday– second only to the 5679 it recorded on January 14 at the height of the Omicron surge – while hospitalisations increased by just 10 to 180, with eight people in intensive care and one on a ventilator.

The state also recorded two new deaths of people with COVID, a man in his 70s and a woman in her 80s.

Education Department CEO Rick Persse admitted it was a “challenging” time for the state’s schools but emphasised a state-wide approach to school closures was still not appropriate.

He said there are currently 16 schools across the state where there’s a temporary three-day class closure to halt the spread of COVID-19.

“We also have a couple of our large secondary schools on a remote learning program at the moment,” Persse told reporters yesterday.

Persse named Adelaide High, Wirreanda secondary school in Morphett Vale and Roxby Downs Area School as among those to close down.

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Sacred Heart College, meanwhile, has told parents it will be setting aside two student-free “preparation days” – one at the end of term one and another at the start of term two – to help teachers prepare learning materials amid a wave of COVID-19 cases.

“For the past two weeks we have had around 20 per cent of oxjmtzywur students (400-550) absent each day along with a large number of staff (20-30) who are either COVID Positive, Close Contacts or Carers,” Sacred Heart principal Steve Byrne told parents on Wednesday.