Free at-home rapid antigen tests will be available to all children aged three to five attending early childhood education services as part of the expansion of the State Government’s voluntary education surveillance testing program.
More than 1.6 million rapid antigen tests will be delivered to early childhood settings in the coming weeks for families to conduct voluntary twice-weekly testing.
Sessional kindergartens will receive their deliveries over the next two weeks, followed by other early childhood services like long day care, family day care and occasional care.
Providing the tests are extra steps taken by Victorian Government to protect young children and their families, according to Premier Daniel Andrews.
“With supply of rapid antigen tests increasing, we’re not wasting a moment getting them to families in early childhood settings, giving families more peace of mind and keeping our crucial early education centres open,” Mr Andrews said.
As with school settings, the program will be voluntary, but highly recommended.
Testing will not be a requirement to attend early childhood settings, but families will be provided with medical guidance on how to easily administer the nasal tests to young children and get a result within 15 to 30 minutes.
The expansion of the early childhood testing program adds to 943,000 rapid antigen tests already being delivered to all staff working in early childhood settings.
The surveillance testing comes on top of a full suite of measures the Government has delivered to reduce the risk of Covid-19 transmission in early childhood settings, including mandating three doses of the vaccine to all staff, a stronger focus on conducting outdoor programs, external drop off and pick up and contactless check in.
The Government has also invested $7.5 million in early childhood services to improve ventilation, alongside a further $7.4 million in grants to support kindergarten services to implement the best Covid-Safe measures for their individual settings, keeping children and staff safer in the classroom.
