Update on Testing Guidance for those in EDUCATION settings Short version is : Only those going back to AL3 require testing
Official message: Kia ora koutou, This email is a heads-up to inform you of a number of changes to the COVID-19 Public Health Response (Required Testing) Order 2020 (the Order) which came into force on Sunday 17 October at 11:59pm for those in education settings at Alert Level 3 following the Minister’s announcement last week. The affected education services are early childhood services (excluding playgroups), registered schools, and hostels within Alert Level 3 areas. The changes to the Order updating testing in education are summarised below: • At Alert Level 3, distance learning continues and students who are currently able to access education facilities will continue to do so. A further announcement was made today regarding Year 11 - 13 returning to school on Tuesday. •
At Alert Level 3, anyone who going onsite to perform work or provide an education service, must provide a negative result from a test for COVID-19 obtained within the previous 5 days: o By 26 October 2021, if working at an early childhood service or hostel o Before going on site in any other school settings (at present these numbers should be limited as most students are continuing to undertake distance learning).
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In the case of a home-based education and care service, every person over the age of 12 years who resides in the home where the home-based education and care service must get evidence of a test within the last 5 days to the relevant PCBU, or cease operating from 26 October.
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In addition, anyone who is not fully vaccinated will need to be tested once every 7 days until fully vaccinated if they have an attendance at an educational setting.
Education staff and other workers affected by this order should provide a SURV-code when they present for testing. They are: SURV-PRIM for primary care schools SURV-SEC for secondary schools SURV-ECE for early childhood education SURV-EDU for everyone else that doesn’t fall in the above 3 categories (home based teaching etc). Teachers and other workers who need to book a test to meet the new testing requirements can visit Healthpoint Please note that a test result can take up to 48 hours. Anyone who needs to provide a negative test result before returning to an education location should get tested at least 48 hours before doing so.