Chief health officer Kerryn Coleman rethinks COVID risk as school virus cases send up to 70 into quarantine

ACT Health discovered on Sunday that a person attended Wanniassa School's junior campus last week from Wednesday, October 27 to Friday, October 29 while unknowingly infectious.

It comes after Ainslie School, Queanbeyan West Public School and Queanbeyan South Public School were all forced to close on Friday due to confirmed COVID-19 cases.

All three campuses were open again on Monday, with only those staff and students deemed close contacts needing to isolate and be tested.

Chief health officer Dr Kerryn Coleman told the inquiry into the ACT's COVID-19 pandemic response that about 60 or 70 people at Wanniassa and Ainslie Schools were in quarantine.

"In the two schools that we've just had cases in primary school, we have focused close contact tracing on just that year group themselves," she said.

"Unfortunately, that has resulted in still quite a high number of children and teachers needing to stay at home for the full 14 day quarantine period, because the majority of them aren't vaccinated at this point in time.

"So that's about 60 or 70 at each school, I think that's too high at this stage, and we will work very hard on what we can do to adapt our risk assessment moving forward."

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From Monday, school and early learning staff who work with children under 12 years were required to show proof of at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.

An Education Directorate spokeswoman refused to give the number of employees who had to be redeployed because of the vaccine mandate, citing privacy reasons.

The spokeswoman said of the employees who were subject to the mandate, 98 per cent of school leaders and teachers and 97 per cent of all school staff had given their vaccination status.

"Staff who have not yet complied with the mandate are being supported by the directorate to undertake alternative duties. School operations are not expected to be impacted," she said.

"To protect the privacy of staff we will not be providing a further breakdown of vaccination status."

Analysis by The Canberra Times shows that up to 92 teachers and school leaders could be unvaccinated across the public school system based on a 98 per cent vaccination rate and the staff head count from June 2020.

However, not all of these teachers would be subject to the vaccination mandate as it only applies to schools with primary-aged children or early childhood services.

When Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith was asked how many schools staff had been redeployed, she said it was a matter for the Education Directorate.

The mandate will be in place until the end of the school year.

It applies to all staff working in ACT primary schools, early education and care settings, out of school hours care services, and specialist and flexible education settings.

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