Public Health director Scott McKeown on Friday said 22 of those schools have outbreaks of more than three class groups.

Of the 73 schools with COVID outbreaks, 64 are primary schools and nine are secondary schools.

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Dr McKeown said 15 schools with outbreaks were based in the North, 34 in the North-West and 24 in the South.

He said there were 495 school students caught up in the outbreaks as were 30 staff.

Overall, there are about 1700 active COVID-19 cases in schools.

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Premier Peter Gutwein announced changes to face mask mandates on Friday.

Masks will no longer be required to be worn in retail outlets like supermarkets from Saturday, excluding staff.

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Mr Gutwein said the government would provide an update on the schools' COVID plan early next week for the last five weeks of term one.

Mr McKeown said Public Health Services would soon provide advice on the face mask requirements in schools.

"At the moment, we certainly want masks to continue to be worn as required in high schools by students and across all schools by staff," he said.

Labor's education spokesman Josh Willie said there had been a lack of transparency on COVID in schools.

"The department doesn't have figures for individual schools and the case numbers in individual schools," he said.

"Parents just want to be kept informed on what's happening in their school.

"They just want the information so that they can make decisions around their child's education."