NSW back-to-school plan to be announced in 'coming days'
The NSW Premier has confirmed the government will be announcing the state's back-to-school plan in the "coming days".
Dominic Perrottet said rapid antigen testing will play a "short term" role in schools and childcare returning safely when term 1 begins on Friday, January 28.
"You would expect the rapid antigen test would play a role in that as well but from an educational outcome," he said.
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Under the NSW back-to-school plan, students would be tested regularly at home before attending class. Nine
"We don't see rapid antigen tests playing a long-term role, we see them playing a short-term role in instilling confidence in our parents and in our teachers to get kids back in the classroom on day one."
Mr Perrottet said the NSW government is working with the Victorian government to finalise the back-to-school plans and seek "alignment" due to the states facing similar case numbers during the Omicron wave.
"We want to provide certainty to parents, teachers, to children that schools will open term one day one in a safe environment," he said.
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Mr Perrottet will announce the return to school plan in coming days Nine
Mr Perrottet also said closing schools due to COVID-19 cases will be a "last resort" in the state's new plan.
Return to schools imperative to prevent workforce shortages
Mr Perrottet said a number of factors are being taken into account in the return to school plan – including the impact on people's mental health, educational outcomes, and parents being able to get back to work.
"Parents who have lost their jobs. Parents who haven't been able to go to work because they have been home-schooling their children," he said.
"There are a myriad of issues that face a society during a pandemic and the role of government is to look at all of those issues and weigh them up and I can say that school going back is a number one focus for me and for the government."
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Mr Perrottet said schools need to return to prevent further workforce shortages. Getty Images/iStockphoto
He added modelling the government has seen shows if schools don't return, five per cent of the workforce would be out of action.
"That is people, men and women right across our state who are unable to go to work and get paid to provide for their families," he added.
Supply of rapid antigen tests an issue for return to school
Infectious diseases expert Professor Robert Booy told Today that while other nations have used rapid tests to get children back to school, supply is a problem.
"So the surveillance approach twice a week has been used since April in the UK effectively. It got kids to school, it kept them at school and it minimised outbreaks," he said.
"Nothing is perfect but it's a way of knowing who might be infectious before they've got symptoms.
"It keeps kids home with a positive test and allows other kids to go to school."
It has been estimated that testing more than one million NSW students twice a week during term one would demand about 24 million RAT kits.
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A million COVID-19 rapid antigen tests arrived in Sydney earlier this week.. 9News
Professor Booy also said the Omicron wave in Australia might disappear as fast as it appeared.
"We may only have to do this for six, eight weeks," he said.
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