Twice weekly rapid antigen tests for Covid-19 in schools will end in NSW within days as the Omicron outbreak wanes and kids get vaccinated.
The NSW Government will instead hand out eight kits per student to use as required, and the same number to every school employee.
The packs, which are already arriving at schools, will be given out in two drops starting this week.
NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet thanked parents, teachers and school administrators for getting children into their classrooms on day one of term one.
The NSW government will offer an extra eight RAT kits per student and staff member to use when families need them
‘It was vital we got our students back in the classroom after two years of disruption to their education, social lives and well-being, and RATs have played an important part in enabling their safe return,’ he said.
‘The packs are there for families and staff to use at their discretion for their own peace of mind, for example, when a student is feeling unwell with a sore throat or cough, or if family members are sick.’
About 8.2 million kits were distributed in the first two weeks of the 2022 school year to more than 3,000 schools and early childhood centres across the state.
Though testing was never mandatory, parents and teachers were encouraged to do a test twice a week, and those who tested positive were required to stay at home.
Education Minister Sarah Mitchell said more than 90 per cent of parents complied with the testing request.
‘It is important we help students, staff and families retain their levels of confidence as we get back to a more normal school life,’ she said.
‘We know our measures work; transmission in schools is extremely low, and there have been no school closures since students returned this year, despite the levels of community transmission.’
NSW Minister for Education Sarah Mitchell said more than 90 per cent of parents have been using the RATs provided
Ms Mitchell acknowledged that testing children twice a week was not an easy task and said more free tests would allow parents to stay vigilant.
Early childhood staff will also receive the additional rapid antigen kits to be used when necessary.
The National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance found that in term four last year, three to four per cent of people exposed to a positive case in schools and early childhood education contracted Covid-19 compared to about 70 per cent in homes.
Nurse Emma Ahearn administers the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine to Isabelle Delany at Sydney Road Family Medical Practice in Balgowlah, NSW
This research is backed up by James Cook University epidemiologist Professor Emma McBryde, who said the fear of schools reopening was unnecessary as the spread of Covid is a ‘biological thing, not a sociological thing’.
She said Australians don’t have to get ‘too concerned about what’s going to happen with schools’.
‘Schools have always been a relatively low risk environment anyway,’ Professor McBryde told Daily Mail Australia.
‘I think the fact that Queensland delayed the start of school by two weeks was just totally an overreaction.
‘Schools have always been a relatively low risk environment anyway,’ Professor Emma McBryde (pictured) told Daily Mail Australia
‘It’s not like the children have gone from nowhere to being somewhere. They’ve gone from holidays where they’re still hanging out with each other and their parents and others, to school.
‘So I don’t see school as a high risk environment compared to kids going to shopping centres or the cinema.’
Along with rapid antigen tests, NSW’s back-to-school plan also entailed mandatory mask-wearing and limited interaction between year groups.
The state government is reviewing these measures, along with whether parents can return to school grounds.
The NSW government is reviewing other Covid measures in schools, such as whether parents can return to school grounds
