Two COVID-19 deaths reported overnight; more public schools switch to remote learning

Kinder to Year 2 students at Margaret Hendry School are among the latest cohorts of students sent home due to teacher shortages. Photo: File.

A woman and her 90s and a woman and her 80s have died with COVID-19 overnight in the ACT, taking the total number of local pandemic fatalities to 66.

It comes as six additional ACT public schools have switched to temporary remote learning as teacher shortages are exacerbated due to COVID-19 and other winter illnesses.

Kinder to Year 2 students at Margaret Hendry School will return to school tomorrow (8 June), while their peers at Macgregor School will be back at school on Thursday (9 June).

Years 7 and 8 at Kingsford Smith School, and Years 9 and 10 at Lanyon High School and Namadgi School will all be undertaking remote learning until the end of this week.

They will be joined by two senior classes at Malkara School who will also return to campus next week.

Last week, the ACT Government agreed to inquire into the number of teachers required to fill ongoing teacher shortages in the ACT public education system.

That data will need to be provided to the ACT Legislative Assembly by the first sitting week of next year.

ACT Health has reported 722 (322 PCR and 400 RAT) new infections overnight, taking the total number of active infections in the Territory to 4358 (2326 PCR and 2032 RAT).

Caseloads for the last three reporting periods have yet to be released. It’s anticipated they will be published later today.

A total of 136,860 (83,131 PCR and 53,729 RAT) COVID-19 cases have been recorded since the pandemic began in March 2020.

There are now 92 people hospitalised with the virus and one person in the ICU. None requires ventilation.

The double-dose vaccination rate for the ACT’s five-plus population remains 97.3 per cent and 76.8 per cent of residents aged 16 and older have received a booster.

Of ACT residents aged five to 11, 68.4 per cent have received two doses of vaccine.

Interstate, NSW has reported eight deaths overnight and 6385 new cases of COVID-19.

There are now 1307 people in hospital with the virus and 36 people in ICUs around the state.

Victoria has reported 12 deaths overnight and 9181 cases of COVID-19.

There are now 514 people hospitalised with the virus, while 24 patients are in the state’s intensive care units.