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Health

Child under five one of two COVID-related deaths in South Australia as notifications reduced for parents

Chief Public Health Officer Nicola Spurrier at the announcement of dropping the teacher vaccine mandate on Wednesday. (ABC News: Sarah Mullins)

Two people with COVID-19 have died in South Australia, including a child under five years old.

The state has recorded 5,134 new cases, a similar number to yesterday.

Chief Public Health Officer Nicola Spurrier said the child had severe health problems and had been "on a palliative care pathway".

The other death recorded was a woman aged in her 80s.

A total of 169 people with coronavirus remain in hospital, including seven in intensive care.

Professor Spurrier would not reveal the child's age or sex but said they were infected by a family member, not at the Women's and Children's Hospital, where they died.

"Unfortunately for this little one, they were not old enough to be vaccinated, but by vaccinating ourselves we also protect those people that are more susceptible in our community," she said.

Teachers at South Australian public and Catholic schools will no longer always tell parents if their child is a COVID-19 classroom contact because the number of cases in schools has made the requirement too "burdensome".

Teachers in particular have been hard hit, with hundreds off every day in South Australia with COVID-19, as close contacts or as carers, despite the quarantine period for close contacts being cut in half to seven days last week.

Professor Spurrier told ABC Radio Adelaide this morning that public schools would no longer have to report to parents if their child was a close contact.

Nicola Spurrier with students at The Heights School last November after announcing vaccine hubs for schools. (ABC News)

Parents will only be notified if five children within a class over a seven-day period has tested positive for coronavirus.

It follows a direction that Catholic schools have already taken.

Professor Spurrier said authorities were looking at other ways to reduce reporting burdens on schools.

"Whether schools are able to report on a year level [instead of classes] so that it's not as onerous but it's really become quite burdensome for the teachers and of course they need to be focusing on teaching the students as much as anything else," she said.

Exemptions for some critical workers

Hospitality venue owners have called for the rule to be relaxed further, but Professor Spurrier said her review would target essential industries that keep society "ticking over".

She cited railway signal workers as an occupation that had been granted an exemption to close contact rules because of their importance to freight transport and the small number of people doing the job.

Push for SACE merit ceremony to go ahead

Education Minister Blair Boyer said he was working with the Premier to ensure the South Australian Certificate of Education (SACE) merit ceremony occurs in person this year.

The event at Government House was postponed in February and was recently cancelled due to COVID-19 concerns.

Mr Boyer said the event was a rite of passage for high-achieving year 12 students.

"I've spoken to the board after speaking with the Premier and made it really clear that they have our support to make sure we can have the event face-to-face as soon as we can," he said.

Premier Peter Malinauskas with new Labor ministers on Zoom at the swearing in of the cabinet last week. (ABC News: Rory McClaren)

New Labor ministers Katrine Hildyard, Nat Cook, Andrea Michaels and Kyam Maher will be sworn in at Government House today after missing the original swearing-in ceremony due to having COVID-19 or being a close contact.

Mr Boyer said Mr Maher's appointment was historic for South Australia.

"The fact that today in 2022 we get to see an Aboriginal person in cabinet — but not just in cabinet but the chief lawmaker — is a really special occasion and holds great significance," he said.

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