The state also recorded two new deaths of people with COVID, a man in his 70s and a woman in her 80s.
State co-ordinator and police commissioner Grant Stevens told reporters this afternoon the mandate changes were “based on the advice we’re received from agency sectors” – but said mandates across all sectors, including healthcare, woxjmtzywuld lapse once the emergency provisions giving him authority to issue directions were withdrawn.
He said that could take place within the current 28-day extension period, or at the end of it.
He said the “higher number” of daily cases “does fit with our modelling”, insisting: “It’s more about the hospitalisations than the actual case numbers.”
“Whilst the numbers are high in terms of daily numbers, it’s not outside of predictions,” he said.
“The key issue for us is hospitalisation rates and they’re within estimates at the moment as well.”
The easing of mandates in schools and the transport sector follow an earlier move to scrap the vax order for police.
The orders will be replaced with new rules for unvaccinated workers, with mask rules and daily RAT testing.
Chief public health officer Professor Nicola Spurrier took issue with the suggestion that mandates were being “scrapped” – despite conceding unvaccinated staff would now be allowed to work at schools – arguing “we are using different risk mitigation”.
Spurrier said she was “perfectly comfortable with the progression”, saying: “I can see to the future, and we cannot be using an emergency management declaration… we have to have another way of managing these mandates going forward.”
However, mandates in health, aged and disability care sectors will remain for now, with Spurrier saying “we are in the position of having to come up with different requirements” in those areas.
“We have to be looking at other tools,” she said.
Education Department boss Rick Persse told reporters only around 200 of the 31,200 staff in the sector had chosen not to be vaccinated, denying the move was a response to teacher shortages amid a spate of classroom contacts and COVID cases.
“That’s not a motivating factor in this, this is something we’ve been working with the Commissioner on for months,” he said.
“We’ve worked closely with the Commissioner and his team, and I’m implementing an interim managerial direction as of tomorrow that will maintain the position with respect of two vaccinations.”
Persse said “any staff coming back to the workforce will be required to wear a mask at all times and undergo a daily RAT test”.
“We’re happy to welcome them back but it will be under those conditions,” he said.
“Absolutely, we will welcome them back – provided they comply with those arrangements.”
Stevens indicated the state was preparing for the end of its two-year emergency declaration, saying “we do need to transition away from that”.
