South Australian students will have to wear face masks for another month after school resumes next week, as the state records another 3,463 cases of COVID-19.
All high school students and adults, including visitors, are required to wear masks in school settings, while the practice is only "recommended" for students in Years 3 to 6.
South Australia's Premier Peter Malinauskas announced the decision after the state's Emergency Management Committee met this morning.
"Wearing masks in schools for kids isn't convenient, it isn't natural, and I certainly feel for our students who will have to continue to wear masks for another four weeks," he said.
It comes after a number of schools were forced to close due to COVID-19 before the Easter holidays began.
Seven people who tested positive for the virus have died in SA in the past 24 hours, and there’s been a jump in hospitalisations to 254.
There are currently 26,944 active cases in South Australia.
Pledge to improve ventilation standards
The Premier pledged the state government would install 1,000 air purifiers in schools across the state in an effort to improve ventilation, taking aim at the previous government's dismissal of the idea.
The exercise has been costed at a total of $530,000, with 700 air purifiers already acquired.
Education Minister Blair Boyer said a ventilation audit undertaken by the previous government last year identified 652 sites that did not meet standards.
"Of those 652 sites, work has been completed on 200," he said.
But the Premier took aim at the rigour of the audit, indicating there were many schools that had not participated.
"The education minister will be issuing a direction to ensure that compliance is met immediately," he said.
"That work will now be accelerated over the course of the coming weeks to get our classrooms in a position where there is adequate ventilation that then mitigates the need for mask wearing."
Opposition education spokesman John Gardner hit back, saying "tens of thousands of students have had their learning impacted" by COVID-19 in the past few weeks.
"Labor argued for a dramatic increase in the use of air purifiers in January and have only managed to add another 1,000 to the 4,000 we already bought," Mr Gardner said in a statement.
"Peter Malinauskas has claimed credit for the removal of every COVID restriction that has given more freedoms to our community, but wants to pass the buck for Labor's failure to develop a plan for removing the requirement for masks in schools."
Vaccination hubs to open in schools
Mr Boyer also indicated the government would open 40 vaccination hubs at schools across the state, which will target children aged between six and 11 years old.
He said the vaccination rate among that age group was significantly below that of the eligible population aged 12 and over.
"It's something like 38 per cent only [who] have had their second dose, so giving ourselves this four-week period with masks in schools will enable that vaccination rate to increase as well," Mr Boyer said.
He said the vaccine hubs will target suburbs with lower vaccination rates.
Sixty-five per cent of South Australians aged over 16 have received at least one booster dose to date.
