ACT records death of a woman in her 60s; more schools go remote

Students in Year 7 at Amaroo School are learning remotely until Tuesday, 16 August. Photo: File.

The Territory has reported the death of a woman in her 60s with COVID-19 overnight, and two more schools have turned to remote learning amid staff absences caused by the pandemic.

It takes the total number of pandemic casualties in the ACT to 108 since March 2020. There have already been 16 deaths this month.

A total of 135 patients are in hospital with COVID, four are in ICU and three require ventilation.

The Territory has recorded 464 (294 PCR and 170 RAT) cases overnight.

Yesterday, the ACT recorded 556 new infections and there were 138 people in hospital with the virus.

Active cases in the Territory have also declined once again. There are 3032 known cases in the ACT and there have been 197,094 cases reported locally since March 2020.

Vaccination updates are now provided weekly on Fridays.

Two additional schools have moved to partial remote learning as the pandemic disrupts usual staffing arrangements.

Students in Year 7 at Amaroo School and their peers in ‘learning communities’ 2 and 4 at Margaret Hendry School will be at home from today until Tuesday, 16 August, returning to school on Wednesday, 17 August.

They join their peers in preschool to Year 2 at Franklin School and three classes at the specialist Black Mountain School who are learning remotely for the remainder of the week.

Last week, Years 5 and 6 at Ainslie School and Years 3 to 6 at Latham Primary School spent some time at home as COVID-19 made keeping all students on a campus impossible.

Partial remote learning was employed more than 50 times last term as high daily caseloads wreaked havoc on usual staffing arrangements.

Interstate, NSW has reported 29 deaths overnight and 10,515 new cases of COVID-19.

There are now 2223 people in hospital with the virus and 64 in ICUs around the state.

NSW Health says eight deaths were notified through the NSW Registry of Births Deaths and Marriages and may not have occurred in the reporting period.

Victoria’s COVID-19 update has been delayed this morning.