It’s official! Mandatory RATs, face masks and cohorting of students will be scrapped across New South Wales schools from next week.
NSW premier Dominic Perrottet, and education minister Sarah Mitchell announced the changes on Wednesday, as a part of relaxed Covid restrictions on the state's education system.
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Coming into effect on February 28, students and high school staff will no longer need to wear face masks.
Parents and visitors will be allowed back on school grounds, while rules separating school kids into groups will be abandoned next week.
Primary school and early childcare staff will still need to wear face masks until the following Monday, on March 7.
The changes follow an announcement earlier this week by the state government which said that students would no longer be required to undergo twice-weekly rapid antigen tests starting on Monday.
Education minister Sarah Mitchell said the relaxing of rules meant things were "pretty much back to normal."
"That's now one less thing that our teachers and principals will need to worry about, which I think is important," she said.
Ms Mitchell highlighted the importance for students to be able to engage with each other and see school life return to normal. "Things like kindergarten to year 6 buddy programs, choirs or student councils or dramatic plays that might take place across year groups – we will be able to do that again," she said. - Minister Mitchell The changes to Covd restrictions come as the state reported six Covid deaths and 8,931 new cases on Wednesday. While there are 1,246 people with the virus in hospital, of which 69 are in ICU. Join Tom Tilley with regular rotating co-hosts Jan Fran, Annika Smethurst and Jamila Rizvi on The Briefing, Monday - Saturday, for the day's headlines and breaking news as well as hot topics and interviews. Available on Listnr.
"Next week we’ll start to see our schools return pretty much back to normal after nearly two years of having different settings in our schools. Now’s the time to get back to normal."