New South Wales has recorded its deadliest day of the pandemic today with 36 deaths and 29,830 new COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours.
There are 2850 people in hospital and 209 people in ICU, a slight rise from yesterday's hospitalisation numbers.
Of today's positive results, 13,763 were reported from rapid antigen tests and 16,037 were from PCR tests.
Meanwhile, Victoria today recorded 22,180 new cases and 22 deaths.
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https://twitter.com/NSWHealth/status/1483197834250039299?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwEarlier today it was reported students would be requested to take rapid antigen tests at home twice a week under the NSW Government's back-to-school plan.
Parents would be given the rapid antigen test kits and then supervise their children's testing before the start of class.
It is part of a NSW Government strategy for controlling the spread of COVID-19 when school resumes later this month, The SMH reports.
Premier Dominic Perrottet will take the plan to cabinet this week and could make an announcement on Thursday.
But state Education Minister Sarah Mitchell confirmed to Ben Fordham on 2GB today that free rapid antigen tests will be rolled out to all schools across NSW.
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But the plan would involve huge numbers of rapid antigen tests, which are currently in limited supply.
NSW has about 1.2 million children that would need testing.
They would need two tests a week over 10 weeks, requiring about 24 million rapid tests.
Principals have been told that high-risk school activities such as singing and school excursions could go ahead, if the home testing plan is adopted.
One other idea being flagged is that when teachers are sick, parents could be called in to help supervise students in classrooms.
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Mr Perrottet has insisted students will return to school by the planned January 28 date.
He said earlier this month that rapid antigen testing would be a crucial part of the back-to-school plan.
