It is indeed good news that the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has provisionally approved a number of treatments for COVID-19 and these medications have already been distributed to state and territory governments for use in their health systems. (Reference: COVID-19 treatments). The health authorities have also lessened the timeframe between the second vaccination doses and booster shots. (Reference: Second dose and booster).

We have been notified by some of the families that their family member/s have already recovered from COVID-19 and some of the parents are ready to go back to work soon. All these positive news boost the confidence of our team, thus we are excited for all the children to come back, learn and have fun with us again!

We endeavor to continue providing a safe environment for all staff, children and families thus, we have upgraded our centre measures and strategies to minimise the risk of COVID-19 in our service. We will:

• Restrict/limit external visitors (centre tours are strictly on appointment and no walk-ins allowed) and other appointments not urgent will be limited to phone calls or email only.
• Open windows and doors to increase natural ventilation.
• Use air-conditioning set on fresh air wherever possible.
• Avoid excursions/incursions.
•  Continue our regular cleaning schedule for all rooms, toys, equipment and learning resources and spray the rooms with child-safe disinfectant.
• Maximise use of the outdoor environment for play/learning and routines.
• Avoid the use of floating staff who work across more than one room.
• Strict enforcement of children not attending if unwell.
• Ensure face masks are worn by all adults when indoors.

Educators in the room will not be rostered in other rooms to limit physical proximity with other children (staff members are scheduled to take turns during break times to limit proximity in the staff room).

We hope these measures can help provide a safer and more secure setting for everyone while maintaining learning environments with sufficient space. We understand the parents’ concerns with sending their children back to childcare, so we do our very best to improve our health and safety measures.

We will keep you informed of any changes or news relevant to COVID-19. If there are new mandates from the health authorities or government, we will update our centre policies as recommended. We also welcome suggestions or feedback to help maintain the safety in our centre.