Victorian schools returning with booster mandate and rapid COVID testing

The state government confirmed all students will be back on day one for term one, with millions of rapid tests to be distributed to schools and early childhood centres.

The twice-weekly testing at home, for all students, is "strongly recommended" and will be in place for at least the first four weeks of term one, in line with NSW.

Students and staff at specialist schools are recommended to self-test five times per week.

Parents and carers are expected to be asked to pick up the rapid antigen tests directly from schools.

All school and early childhood staff must have their third vaccine dose by February 25 if eligible, or within three months and two weeks of receiving a second dose, to continue working in education settings.

The Victorian government has also classified education staff as critical workers - allowing household contacts to voluntarily continue working if they are asymptomatic and return daily negative rapid antigen tests.

"It is about finding as many cases as we can and shutting down those chains of transmission," Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said on Sunday.

Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton has advised the Victorian government that due to the high rates of community transmission of the virus, education settings are likely to be linked to "a significant number of cases once the academic year commences".

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51,000 air purifiers will be implemented at schools focused on high risk settings like music rooms, staff rooms.

The state government will deliver 30 million surgical masks to schools in the first four weeks of term, with 5.8 million surgical masks to be delivered in the first week.

Children can continue to wear cloth masks, but the use of surgical masks is recommended. Students from grade three and above will be required to wear a mask indoors. Staff are required to wear a mask.

More than 1800 schools have applied for a shade sail ground with outdoor learning encouraged where possible.

The government has also launched a pool of inactive teachers, education support staff, retired principals and surge administrative support staff for schools to access to cover any COVID-19-related workforce shortages.

Where there is a positive case, schools and kindergartens will be required to inform staff, parents and carers. Remote learning will be a "last resort".

"It is critically important that we have the students back in the classroom in as safe a situation as we can possibly build so that they can get the education and socialisation - all that experience that is so important to them," Premier Andrews said.

"It will be challenging, not everything will go exactly as we hope, that is the nature of this virus. Nothing is perfect, but through hard work and goodwill I am confident we will get our kids back and we will keep them there and we will keep them as safe as we possibly can.

"Doherty modelling has also confirmed for us that not only is a third dose important, but surveillance testing plays a part: not in eliminating cases, not getting down to zero, but putting downward pressure on the number of positive cases both at schools and in school communities and in the broader Victorian community.

"The less cases we have, the less people finish up in hospital."

Critical hospitalisations are on the downward trend in Victoria, Premier Daniel Andrews said, with intensive care patient numbers dropping.

However, with more than a thousand people in general ward beds, the premier urged eligible Victorians to book a third COVID-19 vaccine dose to reduce the growing pressure on the health system

READ MORE: South West Healthcare's COVID ward stretched

"The vast majority of people critically ill in hospital do not have three doses," Premier Andrews said.

"If you have a third dose, you are less likely to transmit the Omicron variant."

There were 26,581 vaccine doses given yesterday in Victoria, the biggest day for the state-run system since October 2021. There were more than 91,000 doses delivered in the last seven days.

9.7 per cent of Victorians have received a third COVID-19 vaccine and a further 2.3 million Victorians are eligible.

There are 170,000 appointments available over the next 30 days.

4824 pediatric doses were delivered at state-run clinics yesterday, with156,557 children aged 5 to 11 having received their first dose. That is just under 30 per cent of that age group.

There are 66,000 appointments over the next 30 days for 5 to 11-year-olds.

In terms of numbers of the day, 1002 people are in hospital, down from 1029 yesterday and down from the seven day average of 1085.

120 people are in intensive care, the same as yesterday. 44 are on a ventilator, up from 37.

14 Victorians with COVID have passed away.

6466 people reported their rapid antigen tests result as positive and a further 6625 people received a positive PCR result.

There are now 191,058 active cases across Victoria.

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