Higher School Certificate students face another blow to their morale after confirmation Queensland has cancelled Schoolies trips.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Other states are also expected to ban the traditional end-of-school gatherings at coastal towns such as the Gold Coast and Byron Bay.
HSC students have had to deal with online learning, disrupted assessment tasks, uncertainty over how their university entrance marks will be affected and the recent cancellation of school formals.
Formals and Schoolies are both rites of passage for school leavers and offer a light at the end of the tunnel during months of stress and study.
Not this year.
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, whose borders are now closed to NSW residents, confirmed on Friday morning that Schoolies was off.
Ms Palaszczuk said Gold Coast officials agreed with the assessment of the state's chief health officer, Dr Jeannette Young, that the risk of spreading the coronavirus was too high.
"The chief health officer has deemed the event of Schoolies, as a mass event, over multiple days is high risk," she said.
"So the Schoolies that we have come to know over the years will not be able to go ahead in that form this year. This is a very tough decision ....
"So there will be, unfortunately, no concerts, no organised events, because there can be no mass gatherings."
The latest NSW Health surveillance report showed that almost half of NSW's locally acquired cases last week waited more than three days to get tested after they noticed symptoms.
"It's really important people get tested the day they get symptoms," NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said on Friday morning.
NSW reported 13 new coronavirus cases in the 24 hours to 8pm on Thursday.
Ms Berejiklian said the state had come through winter "relatively well".
The 13 cases include one returned traveller in quarantine, six linked to a Sydney CBD cluster, four acquired locally from an unknown source and two close contacts of known cases.
The Hunter New England Health district did not record a positive test, the 22nd day in a row the area has been free of new COVID-19 cases.
Our COVID-19 news articles relating to public health and safety are free for anyone to access. However, we depend on subscription revenue to support our journalism. If you are able, please subscribe here. If you are already a subscriber, thank you for your support.
Sign up for breaking news emails below ...
Michael Parris
Michael Parris reports on politics for the Newcastle Herald. He started at the Herald in 1994 after working in the ABC Newcastle newsroom. Michael spent much of his career as a sub-editor before moving into political reporting in 2017. He was a finalist in the Sports Australia national media awards for his stories about a male-only tennis club in Newcastle. He has covered NSW and federal elections, state and federal budgets and local politics. He has also written extensively about the COVID-19 pandemic with a special focus on data analysis and the effects of lockdowns on the Hunter community.
Michael Parris reports on politics for the Newcastle Herald. He started at the Herald in 1994 after working in the ABC Newcastle newsroom. Michael spent much of his career as a sub-editor before moving into political reporting in 2017. He was a finalist in the Sports Australia national media awards for his stories about a male-only tennis club in Newcastle. He has covered NSW and federal elections, state and federal budgets and local politics. He has also written extensively about the COVID-19 pandemic with a special focus on data analysis and the effects of lockdowns on the Hunter community.
