Masks have been reintroduced at two Adelaide primary schools as a fourth Covid-19 wave runs rampant across Australia.
Health authorities have ordered staff and adult visitors at Noarlunga Downs and Salisbury Park primary schools to wear masks after students and staff were struck down with the virus.
Noarlunga Downs has ordered students in one year 5/6 class to be home schooled.
Last week, some of Salisbury Park’s classes were home schooled after the school recorded more than 10 cases of the virus.
The number of infected students and staff absent from school have doubled since the end of tern three, according to SA Health.
More than 700 infected students statewide were absent last Friday along with 346 staff.
Primary aged students don’t have to wear masks under the state’s pandemic laws but are ‘strongly encouraged’.
Education Minister Blair Boyer resisted calls to impose restrictions on all schools statewide for the terms with only a few weeks remaining.
‘We are better positioned than we were … it does put a lot of pressure on the system of course when we lose staff like that, it does affect students and their learning,’ Mr Boyer said.
‘(The summer holidays) will be enough for us to reset. Hopefully then we pass this wave and we can start the 2023 school year afresh.’
South Australia recorded 9,000 new cases in its latest weekly update last Friday.
‘We are very hopeful that we will be on the other side of that wave well before Christmas, so we can all enjoy a healthy Christmas,’ chief public health officer Nicola Spurrier said.
More to come.
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