New Covid Outbreaks affecting schools in the Shire
Covid-19
Recently the Far North saw a spike in Covid-19 cases as a result of the latest highly contagious Omicron BA. 2 sub-variant.
The new Omicron strain seems to predominantly hit school-aged children. Outbreaks in many schools in the Shire are causing classrooms to be more empty and parents are staying off work as they are isolating with their children.
The latest statistics show that since the start of the pandemic, there have been 40,647 total Covid cases and 53 deaths recorded in the Cairns and Hinterland region. At the moment there are 145 active cases.
The Douglas Shire has seen 1,889 recorded Covid cases so far. Compared to the number of cases last Friday, there have been 95 new cases recorded in our Shire.
Deputy mayor Lisa Scomazzon said that there have been a number of students who have had Covid in the Shire and have had to take time off school to be in isolation with their families.
She added that she knows of quite a few people around her who had to stay off work to go into isolation with their children because they contracted Covid as well.
Deltacron
Cases might continue to increase with another new mutant Covid strain dubbed Deltacron. This hybrid variant has properties of both Delta and Omicron variants.