Sarah Courtney,Minister for Education
Labor and Josh Willie should stop trying to scare parents on New Year's Eve with misinformation and untruths - schools will reopen as planned on 9 February 2022.
The Department of Education is currently implementing a range of measures in schools including natural ventilation improvements, air purifiers, enhancing outdoor learning and additional cleaning arrangements to ensure the safety of students.
This work is well underway, including window repairs around the state and the receipt of 1000 air purifiers with more on track to arrive before Term 1.
The vast majority of our COVID cases have very mild symptoms, and this is what we would expect in a highly vaccinated state and it's exactly why we focused on getting our vaccinations to over 90 per cent of the population, particularly those who are vulnerable, before opening the borders.
Over the coming weeks we will be ramping up our booster program, together with our paediatric vaccination program.
From the 10th of January there will be 4 mass vaccination clinics in large urban areas, 17 regional pop-up clinics and up to 87 participating GPs delivering vaccinations to our five to 11 year olds.
While it is not mandatory to have your children vaccinated, it is strongly encouraged.
This will ensure that all those eligible will have had the opportunity for at least one dose before school returns.
Vaccination is so important. It is exactly why across Australia we are seeing high case numbers, but this is not translating into high hospital numbers.
As we stand today 97.6 per cent of Tasmanians aged 16 and over have had at least one dose and 92.7 per cent are fully vaccinated, while 96.5 per cent of Tasmanians aged 12 and over have had one dose and 91.5 per cent are fully vaccinated.
The Tasmanian Government will continue to prioritise the health and safety of all Tasmanians while disgraceful Labor just wants to scare people.
