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At least one school is reverting to online learning because it is unable to staff classes.
Auckland’s Carmel College says on its website that the school will be using online learning from Tuesday 5 – Friday 8 July.
Schools in New Zealand are on holiday from 9 July.
Amid battling Covid, influenza, RSV, tummy bugs and staff having to care for ill family members, the NZ Herald reported, Sunday, schools are ‘just hanging on’ till the end of term.
University of Otago epidemiologist Professor Michael Baker is again urging New Zealanders to brace for the second Omicron wave as the community case average increased by almost 50 per cent in nine days.
Baker described the 49 per cent increase of the seven-day rolling average of cases on June 25 (4737) to Monday 4 July (7046) as an “abrupt rise.”
Baker is warning that New Zealand could be at the beginning of another Omicron infection wave.
“It’s a dynamic; a battle between us and the virus and there are factors mainly favouring the virus at the moment,” Baker said.
On Monday, health officials reported 6498 community cases, and 487 hospitalisations. The weekly rolling average of hospitalisations has increased from 335 this time last week to 420 today.
While some schools have gone back to compulsory wearing of masks, last week, the Government only encouraged mask wearing for year 4 students and above.
A mandate for wearing masks in schools was removed in mid-April, just before the end of the first school term.
On June 30, the Government made changes to reinfection advice, saying anyone who experienced symptions 29 days or longer after a previous infection must test and isolate if they return a positive result.
“Moving back to red is unnecessary at the moment. We can continue to manage the virus at orange, but are putting in place a range of additional measures to help manage a recent rise in cases,” Covid Response Minister Dr Ayesa Verrall said.
Sources
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News category: New Zealand.
