Students and teachers will be among those to do surveillance testing every week under the New South Wales return to school plan.
Eighty per cent of schools have received their allocated rapid tests, and Premier Dominic Perrottet says that demonstrates how much work has been done to ensure children can come back to the classroom safely.
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Highlights
- Most students are returning to school in New South Wales in February.
- A group of nurses staged a protest in South Western Sydney over staffing levels, which they say are at critical levels.
- Part of the concern over the vaccine rollout is also that key age groups have fallen behind expectations in parts of Australia.
The vaccine rollout, including the importance of boosters, was on the agenda at Thursday's National Cabinet meeting.
The states and territories have become concerned about low rates of booster uptake across the population, potentially because of the federal government's messaging over the past few months that Omicron is a more contagious but milder form of the virus.
That has led to speculation that people have started to believe they don't need a third dose.
But in New South Wales, chief medical officer Dr Kerry Chant says the research clearly shows otherwise.
"Every report that is published, every study, shows the benefit of having that booster dose. Just because we're asking you to have a booster doesn't mean that the vaccines in any way don't work. But what we know is that the omicron variant's changed a bit, and that third dose will actually increase your protection. And it is critical that we get the population boosted."
