COVID-19
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Vic confirms ECEC amongst essential workers exempt from close contact home isolation
Freya Lucas
Jan 14, 2022
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As the number of COVID-19 close contacts continues to grow across the country, Victoria has taken the measure of providing a range of essential workers with an exemption from close contact home isolation requirements.
From 11:59pm, Tuesday 18 January, workers in emergency services, education (including early childhood education and care), critical utilities, custodial facilities, transport and freight will join workers in the food production sector as being eligible for the exemption.Under the conditions of the exemption, the worker may return to work if it is necessary for continuity of operations and if other options have been exhausted. The exemption will apply to attending work only, not any other settings.
In order to be eligible, the worker must first notify the employer of their status as a contact, and critically, both parties must consent to the worker returning to the workplace. They are already required to be fully vaccinated.
Strong measures will be required to reduce the risk of a contact attending work while infectious:
- The worker must undertake a daily Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) for five days and return a negative result prior to attending work each day
- They must wear a face mask at all times, with exceptions in the case of eating or drinking, or safety reasons, and a P2/N95 respirator is preferred
- The worker cannot enter shared break areas and the employer must try and facilitate solo break time. The employer must also take reasonable steps to deploy the worker in areas where transmission risk is lower
- If at any time the worker develops symptoms or tests positive on a RAT, the exemption no longer applies – they are a case, must isolate for 7 days, and must notify others including their employer.
The exemption order is identical to that granted by Victoria’s public health team for key food and beverage workers, and is designed to protect the state’s essential workforce during the continuing Omicron wave.
This exemption also currently applies to hospital workers, disability workers, residential aged care facility workers, and ambulance workers, but the use of an N95 mask at the workplace is a requirement, not a preference.
Close contacts, otherwise known as household and household-like contacts, are people who have spent more than four hours with a case inside a house, accommodation or care facility.
The Department of Health has also updated its contact management guidelines to require workplaces to notify the Department when five cases have attended the work premises within seven days. Previously, workplaces were required to advise the Department and Worksafe of single cases.
More information on the conditions of the exemption and applicable cohorts of workers will be published at www.coronavirus.vic.gov.au/isolation-exemptions when they come into effect at 11:59pm, Tuesday 18 January.
To read the announcement in full please see here.
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