Those students, equating to roughly 60 per cent of the cohort – or 170,000 children – are due to return to school today after their peers began the school year face-to-face on February 2.
The first two weeks of school has seen the Education Department avoid a teachers strike from the Australian Education Union over complaints about a lack of provision of rapid antigen tests.
However, it has also seen upwards of 400 teachers and student support staff across the workforce isolating due to being COVID-positive or a close contact.
The Education Department has assured principals that there is a standby workforce of up to 4000 temporary relief teachers if needed to fill the gaps left by COVID.
Premier Steven Marshall this morning emphasised that parents should not send their kids to school if they’re displaying COVID symptoms and instead take them in for a PCR test.
But he assured parents they can be confident of their kids’ safety at school.
“There were people catastrophising that we would have a massive second wave in South Australia, in fact what we’ve had is five days of lowering numbers,” he told ABC Radio this morning.
“We expect that there might be a chance in the median age … of those who become COVID-positive, but it’s a pretty small movement.”
South Australia recorded two COVID-positive deaths and 1165 cases on Sunday.
There are currently 211 people in hospital with the virus, 17 in intensive care and four on a ventilator.
Meanwhile, new figures obtained by the RAA show that 21,345 drivers were caught speeding or running red lights at a school crossing in the last financial year – an increase of more than 1000 offences on the previous year.
RAA senior manager of safety and infrastructure Charles Mountain urged caution on the first full day back of school.
“Pedestrians and cyclists – especially young children – are among the most vulnerable road users and RAA urges motorists to exercise vigilance and caution around schools,” he said.
“We’d expect the roads to start to return to usual traffic conditions, so it’s a good idea to allow yourself a few extra minutes to reach your destination, particularly if you’re doing a school drop-off as well.”
Politicians return to Canberra amid unrest
Politicians are returning to Canberra for the final sitting week before the federal budget next month, having avoided the 10,000-strong protest march at the weekend that confronted Parliament House.
The key complaint of the protesters was vaccine mandates across the country, something Prime Minister Scott Morrison says are largely the decisions of state premiers, not his.
He insists the federal government has only ever supported mandates that relate to aged care workers, disability workers and those who are working in high-risk situations in the health system.
But Labor senator Kristina Keneally said it was the prime minister who set up the national cabinet and was prepared to take all the credit when the premiers took their measures.
“As soon as a group of protesters walks into town critical of some of those decisions, he points the fingers at the premiers, says ‘it’s not my fault, it’s theirs’,” Senator Keneally told ABC’s Insiders program.
ACT police wanted the protesters out of the campsite wherxjmtzywe they have congregated over the past couple of weeks by Sunday so the territory’s Canberra Show can be set up.
Meanwhile, more members of the Australian Defence Force have been deployed to residential aged care facilities with 38 sent to Queensland, Victoria, South Australia and NSW.
There are now 200 personnel throughout Australia available to help nursing homes cope with COVID-19 cases including 17 with the Department of Health coordinating ADF support.
Man dies in Limestone Coast car crash
A man from Victoria has died after his car crashed into a tree near Naracoorte on Sunday.
Police say they were called to Frances Road in the state’s South East around 11:30am on Sunday following reports of the crash.
A 37-year-old man from Victoria died at the scene, police say.
It is the sixth death on South Australian roads this year, after another man died in Tulka near Port Lincoln on Saturday night after crashing into a Stobie pole.
That driver, a 46-year-old man from the area, died at the scene.
His passenger, a 53-year-old woman from Whyalla Stuart, was taken to the Royal Adelaide Hospital in a critical condition.
South Australia’s road toll at this point last year was 10.
Ukraine president unconvinced of Russian invasion threat
Ukraine’s president has played down intensified warnings of a possible Russian invasion within days, saying he has yet to see convincing evidence.
Volodymyr Zelensky’s comments came even as the US warned of more Russian troops pressing closer to Ukraine’s borders and some airlines cancelled or diverted flights to the country.
The White House said President Joe Biden would talk later on Sunday with Zelensky.
The Ukrainian leader’s repeated statements urging calm among his people – while Russian forces surround his country on three sides in what Russia insists are military exercises – grew this weekend, with Zelensky questioning strident warnings from US officials in recent days that Russia could be planning to invade as soon as the middle of next week.
The US picked up intelligence that Russia was looking at Wednesday as a target date, according to a United States official familiar with the findings.
“We’re not going to give Russia the opportunity to conduct a surprise here, to spring something on Ukraine or the world,” US national security adviser Jake Sullivan told CNN on Sunday.
“We are going to make sure that we are laying out for the world what we see as transparently and plainly as we possibly can.”
The US has largely not made public the evidence it says is underlying its most specific warnings on possible Russian planning or timing.
The Russians have deployed missile, air, naval and special operations forces, as well as supplies to sustain an invasion.
This week, Russia moved six amphibious assault ships into the Black Sea, augmenting its capability to land on the coast.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said on Sunday that Russia had well over 100,000 troops along Ukraine’s borders, “and actually, over the last few days, even more”.
Kirby cited “a mosaic of intelligence” the US had gathered but gave no details.
Crows defeated in huge AFLW upset
The Western Bulldogs have withstood a furious second-half revival from Adelaide to upset the previously unbeaten Crows by one point in an AFLW boilover at Norwood Oval on Sunday.
The Bulldogs, who won 8.1 (49) to 7.6 (48), and only scored their first win of the season last week, never trailed and won away for the first time since beating the Crows at the same venue in round one of 2019.
Sparked by midfielders Ellie Blackburn and Kirsty Lamb, the visitors scored the first 19 points and led by as much as 24 in the second quarter.
By halftime, Adelaide had already conceded more points than in the entirety of any of their five previous games this season.
Adelaide dominated territory in the second half, but the Bulldogs hung on despite playing more than half the game two players down.
The Crows trailed by 15 early in the final quarter but goals to Ashleigh Woodland and Stevie-Lee Thompson cut the deficit to three points.
A couple more Adelaide behinds set up an incredible finish, with Erin Phillips falling just short from a set shot and Caitlin Gould having a close-range kick smothered, as the Bulldogs desperately defended a couple of stoppages from around ten metres out in the final minute.
So close. #weflyasone pic.twitter.com/z2c4cUS6Wd
— Adelaide Crows AFLW (@CrowsAFLW) February 13, 2022
“I just can’t believe in that last minute or so or so we didn’t let it go in,” Blackburn told Fox Footy.
“We were just yelling at each other ‘don’t let them score, don’t let them score.’
“We started off really well and they are a really good side, so we knew they were going to come we just had to hold on.”
Ebony Marinoff accumulated 26 disposals for the Crows while Anne Hatchard racked up 23 and Phillips 20, 16 of them in the second half.
Aussies beat Sri Lanka in T20I super over
A stunning Josh Hazlewood display in a super over has helped Australia to consecutive T20 international wins over Sri Lanka at the SCG, although a concussion has ruled out star batsmen Steve Smith for the rest of the series.
Hazlewood backed up his figures of 3-22 by conceding just five runs in the super over to quell any hope of a Sri Lanka win on Sunday.
The biggest concern for Australia out of Sunday’s game, though, was a concussion for Smith in the field which has ruled him out for the remaining three games of the series.
In front of a crowd of 6,305, Sri Lanka needed 12 off three balls to chase down a victory target of 165 when Maheesh Theekshana hit Marcus Stoinis for six off his very first delivery.
Smith went to flick the ball back into the field of play but he landed directly on his temple.
Smith went off for treatment before Dushmantha Chameera tied the scores by hitting the last ball for four.
“It all happened pretty quickly and whenever someone dives and doesn’t get up it’s a concern,” Hazlewood said.
“It’s good to see him walking around now and he’s walking around the changing room now. The early signs are good and I guess the medicos will make their call and assess him later.”
Cricket Australia said they would not look to bring a replacement into the squad.
Josh Inglis (48) proved the best of Australia’s batters, and Sri Lanka were sluggish in their response before they began to get on top through Pathum Nissanka (73) and captain Dasun Shanaka late in their innings.
Hazlewood’s economical bowling, conceding just five runs, kept Sri Lanka at bay with Stoinis leading Australia to victory with the bat, crashing two boundaries.
