More than 42,000 rapid antigen tests will be needed in Bega Valley schools as students prepare to return to the classroom under the state's new COVID-19 rules next week.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The NSW government has announced its back to school strategy, which includes twice-weekly testing using RATs supplied to every student's family and staff member.
Masks will also be compulsory in high school classrooms for both teachers and students, while they will be highly recommended for students in Year 3 and above in primary schools.
According to the latest figures available through MySchool data, myschool.edu.au, there are approximately 4720 students enrolled across all primary and secondary schools in the Bega Valley.
They are being looked after by approximately 550 permanent teaching and non-teaching staff members (the MySchool data does not include temporary teaching staff).
Based on those numbers, 10,540 RATs will be needed each week across the region.
For the four weeks of twice-weekly testing flagged by the NSW government, that's 42,160 RATs in total - unless there are positive results leading to self isolation which may bring that number down a little.
On Sunday, NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet said work was underway to already distribute tests to the state's 3000 schools.
Minister for Education Sarah Mitchell said schools would not be closing even if a positive case was detected, nor would any contact tracing be undertaken.
If children were to test positive, parents should inform the school principal and NSW Health know via the Service NSW app or website.
"We will no longer be closing schools when there is a positive COVID case in that community and we will not be conducting contact tracing anymore. We are really moving schools in line with what we see in community settings," Ms Mitchell said.
"But parents and carers and family members will be notified if there is COVID in your school community, so, again, you can monitor for symptoms and your children and make sure you are using those rapid antigen tests that we have provided twice a week.
"This is really about minimising the disruption to our school communities."