Sydney resumes face-to-face classes after vaccinating 90% of teachers

College students from Sydney, Australia’s most populous city, began a staggered return to classrooms on Monday, after vaccinating around 90% of teachers and school staff with the full schedule.

The city, which came out of a quarantine of more than 100 days last week after exceeding 70% of vaccinated, continues with the reopening plan linked to vaccination.

“It’s a good day. It’s wonderful that we have the students back in the classrooms“New South Wales Education Officer Sarah Mitchell told the local Nine News network, reporting on the vaccinations of teachers and other workers.

According to the roadmap, the return to schools will be done in stages, starting today with children from kindergarten and the first and last year of high school, while the rest will do so next Monday.

The relaxation of measures in Sydney prioritizes those inhabitants who have the complete schedule of the vaccine against covid-19, while people with a dose or none will have to complete the inoculation or wait until December 1, when the measures will be applied from homogeneously.

The authorities today also lifted the mandatory use of face masks in work centers, although they maintain them on public transport and in shopping centers; and they will allow people to go to sports venues, although with a capacity limit.

Sydney plans to begin its gradual reopening of international borders on November 1 and will then allow entry for citizens and permanent residents, as well as close relatives, without having to quarantine if they are fully vaccinated.

The state of New South Wales, whose capital is Sydney and which was the epicenter of the third wave of covid-19 in Australia, reported 265 new local infections and five deaths on Monday.

On the other hand, in Victoria, which will deconfine Melbourne this Friday once it exceeds 70 percent of the vaccination of the adult population, it reported 1,903 community infections and 7 deaths.

Australia, which recently put an end to its relentless “zero case strategy” by enacting rapid and localized lockdowns by detecting a few infected, has accumulated more than 145,000 infections, including 1,515 deaths, since the start of the pandemic.

The oceanic country, whose vaccination strategy began later than other Western countries, has inoculated more than 65.0% of the target population with the full regimen and around 85% with the first dose.

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