The staggered start to the school year – in which face-to-face learning resumes only for pre-schoolers, receptions, years 1s, 7s, 8s and 12s – follows weeks of debate over the use of rapid antigen tests in schools, ventilation and provisions for immunocompromised teachers.
The State Government has managed to avoid a public teachers’ strike over the issues after members of the Australian Education Union last week voted to renege on an earlier ballot in which almost two-thirds of the membership backed a strike on the first day of term one.
The second ballot came after chief public health officer Nicola Spurrier met with the union leaders last week and eased their concerns over the limited provisions for rapid antigen tests in education settings.
RATs are being provided for regular testing in childcare settings, special schools and for teachers who end up in a classroom with a confirmed COVID-positive student.
However, they are not being widely distributed widely for twice-weekly testing as in New South Wales or Victoria.
Spurrier, who was this morning pressed about complaints from schools who have not received their allocation of RATs, insisted that rapid tests are “just one small part” of safely returning kids to school.
“I think people understand that we are not doing surveillance testing in schools,” she told ABC Radio this morning.
“Whether or not they’re held at the school or whether they’re held centrally and the teachers are informed that they go and pick them up, I don’t know about those arrangements.
“But I do know that we have sufficient rapid antigen tests in the state to be able to do what I’ve recommended to the schools.”
The AEU has not ruled out strike action and is monitoring how the first two weeks of school progresses.
The State Government estimates that 104,000 of the 274,00 South Australian students returning to school today will be learning face to face.
The rest of the cohort is due to return to campus on Monday, February 14.
Roughly 21,000 reception students will xjmtzywattend school for the first time today while 18,000 Year 12s are returning for their final year of school.
Education Minister John Gardner said yesterday that dozens of powerpoints and video lessons had been uploaded to the Our Learning SA portal, with the Department of Education aiming to add hundreds more in coming weeks.
A helpline is also being made available to provide IT support to parents of children studying online.
Elective surgery restrictions to ease over February
The State Government has announced plans to ease all restrictions on elective surgery in South Australia by the end of February.
All non-urgent elective surgery in South Australia has been postponed since December 29 when the state was heading towards the peak of its Omicron wave.
A gradual timeline to ease these restrictions, released on Tuesday afternoon, will see limits on elective surgery removed at the start of each week this month, beginning with the resumption of day surgery in the private sector on February 7.
That week will also see surgery reinstated in country local health networks subject to local outbreak status.
Day surgery in public sector metro hospitals is slated to recommence on February 14 along with up to 75 per cent of total surgery in the private sector.
The following week will see all elective surgery in the private sector resume along with category 2 surgery in the public sector, then all restrictions on public sector elective surgery will be removed on February 28.
South Australian chief medical officer Dr Michael Cusack said SA Health would be keeping close tabs on local COVID-19 transmission while lifting restrictions.
“During this pause in elective surgery, our priority has been not only to care for COVID-19 positive patients in hospital, but also to boost vaccination rates in the community and staff from the private sector have played an important role in helping us to do this,” he said.
“We will closely monitor the rates of COVID transmission in the community while working with the Local Health Networks and private sector to ensure we manage a safe approach to surgical activity levels and remain COVID-ready if the situation changes in the future.”
Metropolitan Fire Service hit with vax order
The Metropolitan Fire Service is the latest sector to be subject to a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination order.
Those who work for the service will be required to receive at least one dose of a vaccine by 12:01am on February 13, under new directions issued by SA Police last night.
“This direction applies to all South Australia Metropolitan Fire Service workers (both metropolitan and regional) – including firefighters, public sector employees, along with contractors and volunteers who perform work at an MFS setting,” SAPOL said in a statement.
The direction also requires MFS workers to have a third shot of the vaccine within the “prescribed time”.
The time is defined as fourth months from a worker’s second dose or within four months of receiving a positive COVID test.
Stuart Highway reopening weeks away, APY Lands roads ‘impassable’
The flooded Stuart Highway could remain inaccessible for weeks while outback roads surrounding the APY Lands in the state’s north are “impassable” as summer storms continue to cause chaos across regional South Australia.
Port Augusta was the latest town to cop a drenching on Monday night when a thunderstorm dumped more than four times the town’s average January rainfall in less than an hour.
A 250km stretch of the Stuart Highway between Glendambo and Coober Pedy has been closed for more than a week due to floodwaters, causing major supply chain disruptions with freight trucks travelling between Adelaide and Darwin forced into a long detour.
State Emergency Service CEO Chris Beattie said water more than 400ml deep remained over the bitumen, making repair works impossible.
“We expect it to be at least 12 days until the water has subsided and restoration works can commence,” he told reporters on Tuesday.
“Engineering options are being explored to accelerate this timeline by draining or pumping the water.”
Beattie said 20 tonnes of emergency supplies have now been flown to Coober Pedy as it faces the prospect of being cut off from the rest of the state for weeks.
Meanwhile, in the APY Lands, Putkaja recorded 101.6mm of rainfall from 9am Monday to 4am on Tuesday.
“There’s been a lot of rain across that part of the state, and the advice we’ve had from SAPOL is that all outback roads across that part of APY at the moment are impassable,” Beattie said.
Meanwhile, BoM Meteorologist Jonathan Fischer has described Port Augusta’s Monday night deluge as a “one in a 100-year event”.
However, he struck a more positive tone about when the state will see calmer weather.
“Over the coming days, we’ll see a return to a more typical summer time pattern with a high-pressure system maintaining fine weather right across South Australia after the rain clears,” he said on Tuesday.
“It’s certainly a very significant event for our state.
“If we look at the event as a whole… we probably only see something like this once every two or three decades.
“The event as a whole will ease in the coming days as that rain band clears.
“We’ll get some good intel once the cloud and rain clears and we get some satellite images just showing how much rain is out there.”
Australia in danger of missing World Cup
The Socceroos are almost certainly facing the dreaded intercontinental playoff route to qualify for next year’s World Cup after being held to a disastrous 2-2 draw against Oman.
Australia twice led through Jamie Maclaren and Aaron Mooy in Muscat overnight, but were pegged back by a double strike from Oman’s Abdullah Fawaz.
The Socceroos hit the front in the ninth-minute when Martin Boyle won a penalty, but Oman, who were missing several players due to a COVID-19 outbreak in their squad, came out firing in the second-half and equalised in the 54th minute through a stunning strike from Fawaz.
Australia pushed forward in response and appeared to have claimed a vital win when Mooy swept home his first goal in over two years for the Socceroos in the 79th minute.
Jubiliation turned to heartbreak however when Fran Karacic was penalised for a clumsy challenge on Omani substitute Muhsen Al-Ghassani. Fawaz stepped up to beat Ryan from the penalty spot.
The result means Australia are three-points behind second-placed Japan with two games to play in the third stage of Asian qualifying for Qatar 2022.
Earlier on Tuesday, Japan inflicted group leader Saudi Arabia’s first defeat of the campaign in Saitama.
It makes matters worse for the Socceroos who will have to beat the Samurai Blue in Sydney on March 24 to have any hope of securing one of the two automatic qualifying spots.
Since the 2006 World Cup, Australia has beaten Japan just once in 11 matches.
And with Japan to play last-placed Vietnam at home in their final match and Saudi Arabia away to struggling China in their other remaining fixture, it’s almost certain Graham Arnold’s men will have to qualify via the playoff route with anything less than two wins.
A playoff spot would see the Socceroos matched up with the United Arab Emirates, who are currently third in the other Asian qualifying group.
A win over the UAE would then see Australia face a sudden death playoff against a South American side, possibly Chile, Peru, Colombia or Uruguay.
Roberts-Smith trial to resume after long delay
After a lockdown in Sydney, border changes in Western Australia, talk of relocating to Adelaide and several legal sideline skirmishes, Ben Roberts-Smith’s marquee defamation trial is set to resume.
The former SAS corporal’s lawsuit against , and over alleged war crimes in Afghanistan was halted in July due to COVID-19 complications.
WA’s recent change to border policies caused further difficulties, with the media outlets reluctant to call witnesses who would be forced into a fortnight of quarantine after testifying in Sydney.
Instead, the outlets are expected on Wednesday to call the first of 15 witnesses who don’t reside in the west.
These will include ex-wife Emma Roberts and her close friend Danielle Scott.
Federal MP and former special forces soldier Andrew Hastie is also among the witnesses appearing in the respondents’ case.
Roberts-Smith, a Victoria Cross winner, is suing the news outlets over articles from 2018 that he says paint him as a criminal who breached the moral and legal rules of military engagement during his deployments in Afghanistan with the SAS.
