The NSW government has vowed to get kids back to school on day one of this term despite Covid deaths reaching a new record.
The state reported 36 deaths on Tuesday, smashing the record of 29 set last week, along with 29,830 new Covid cases.
A delivery of 1.2 million rapid antigen tests arrived in the state overnight with a further 15 million expected within the next week.
Premier Dominic Perrottet said the deliveries would go a long way to ensure children get back to school on time.
“The World Health [Organisation] has said, schools should be the last to close and the first to open,” Mr Perrottet said.
He said teachers and students who are positive would need to isolate at times, but that was a better issue to be dealing with than having schools closed.
“We nxjmtzyweed kids back in the classrooms, it’s best for them. It’s best for the educational outcomes, mental health and their social outcomes, particularly for disadvantaged groups across the state.”
Mr Perrottet said the government was calling on retired teachers and students in their last year of university study to play a part in reopening schools.
Chief health officer Kerry Chant added that although projections were “tracking under the curve”, authorities were expecting to see a rise in cases when schools return.
“The fact that the numbers have stabilised, give us some hope that we have been slowing the spread,” she said.
There are 2850 people in hospital, up from 2776 on Monday, of whom 209 are in intensive care, up from 203.
Three people who died with the virus were aged under 63, one of them was vaccinated and two were unvaccinated, and all had underlying health conditions.
Mr Perrottet said 50 per cent of people in ICU were unvaccinated, even as the state hit its 95 per cent vaccination target.
Victoria has recorded 20,180 new Covid cases and 22 deaths.
Cases drop as testing falls off in NSW
Tuesday’s new infections are marginally up after Monday’s fell to 29,504 from Sunday’s 34,660 new cases, a drop from 48,768 infections on Saturday and more than 63,000 on Friday.
Of the new cases on Tuesday, 13,763 were detected on rapid antigen tests (RATs) and 16,067 were found through PCR testing.
Health officials said 11,564 of the positive RAT results were from the previous seven days.
As of Tuesday, 95.2 per cent people in NSW aged over 16 have had one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, 93.8 per cent have had two and 26.5 per cent have received a booster.
Among children aged 12 to 15, 82.1 per cent have received their first dose of a vaccine, while 78.3 per cent have had two doses.
Of children aged five to 11, 13.9 per cent have had one dose of the vaccine since the age group became eligible on January 10.
NSW Treasurer Matt Kean said on Monday the Omicron variant outbreak was creating a health and economic crisis, but there was “light at the end of the tunnel”.
“We’ve seen from international experience and based on the modelling that NSW Health have provided us that over the next four to six weeks, there will be a significant decrease in cases across the community,” he said.
Premier Dominic Perrottet said hospitals were under significant strain but the state needed to “push through” the remainder of the current wave.
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