Australia Covid news live update: NSW records 35,054 cases and eight deaths; Victoria reports 17,636 cases and 11 deaths; fury over Djokovic exemption | Australia news

Perrottet says Nat-Cab will also discuss isolation requirements for health care workers.

He is asked about an exclusive article in GUardian Australia yesterday showing ovoid positive nurses are returning to work – sometimes with symptoms.

He throws it to Health Deputy Secretary Susan Pearce:

“The suggestion that people are being brought back to work when they’re positive is certainly – we have no evidence of that.

“if you are a close contact and your health staff member and there is a critical need for return, there is a process to be gone through that’s really important to understand.”

Perrottet says they are working on plans to get kids back in the classroom on the first day of term.

“There will be challenges but we will do everything we can to meet them, to minimise disruption to have schools opening.”

He says NSW overcame the majority of disruption last year to get kids back in classrooms.

“I can’t guarantee that there won’t be disruption from time to time based on what comes our way, particularly the question in relation to isolation requirements at the moment and as case numbers increase.”

Perrottet says the next few weeks will be challenging.

“The faster we can get those rapid antigen tests into the hands of people across the state … we will. We want to see that, and will work with the commonwealth government.”

Perrottet says RATs will play an important part when school returns.

Perrottet is up again and he is asked about RATs.

“We’ve obviously put a substantial order here in New South Wales for the antigen test and we want to make sure those who need access to rapid antigen test get access to that now.”

He says there is no dollar figure that NSW won’t put on the table.

“There is no dollar fee that we will not put on the table to ensure, as we move through this next phase, rapid antigen tests are available to anybody right across the state who needs one.”

O’Meara says the best way of protecting children aged over 5 years is to vaccinate them and the best way to protect younger children is to have everyone in the family vaccinated.

“Covid can be a severe disease in a small number of children. So it’s worthwhile getting the best protection you can and then getting vaccinated as of today.”

NSW chief paediatrician Dr Matthew O’Meara is up and he is talking about the importance of vaccinating children.

“A few children can become very unwell and data from earlier strains in largely unvaccinated children in New South Wales showed that between one or two in every 100 children would need to go to the hospital, and about one 1000 would end up in intensive care, and about one in 3000 would develop a serious inflammatory condition.”

Pearce says the government is “revisiting plans” made in the last two years and that the health system is under a lot of pressure.

“Our plea to people is please do not call triple zero unless you have an emergency.”

NSW Health deputy secretary Susan Pearce says the system is under strain.

“What has been carrying out is what was predicted – that is that Omicron is less severe than previous strains, but the sheer number of cases is obviously resulting in people needing to come to hospital and that will continue.

“So we expect for the next several weeks that we will see that pressure continuing.

“We also expect that once it starts to decline, it will likely decline quite quickly but we have got some challenging weeks ahead of us.”

Perrottet says 2.5 million people are now eligible for booster shots.

He is now addressing the PCR queues.

“I appreciate very much the patience that everyone is showing in lining up and rest assured we’re doing everything we can put downward pressure on that system.

“We have a number of rapid antigen tests arriving as of next week that will significantly assist, but my clear message today is if you are not required to get a PCR test, please do not line up in those queues.”

Perrottet is up now.

He says he understands people feel anxious but NSW “will get through”.

“The key to that success has been the vaccination rate. Yesterday first dose vaccination rates had one of the highest days ever.”

He said even though the state had high vaccine rates, people were still coming forward for their first shot – which was good to see. Over 1000 people came forward yesterday.

NSW is now at 95% double vaccination he said.

“That has been incredibly successful in ensuring we are able to keep our hospital system in its very strong position.”