NSW government’s secret plan to deliver rapid antigen tests to schools

Stockpiles of rapid antigen tests are being kept in a secret warehouse in western Sydney and delivered to schools in a military-like operation.

A secret military-like operation is under way to get every student in the state’s public, Catholic and private schools access to rapid antigen tests (RATs) from the first week of term one.

Scarce RATs have already been shipped to regional NSW from a secret warehouse in Western Sydney as part of the major logistical exercise designed to get the 2022 school year off to a smooth start amid the threat of Omicron.

The RAT rollout – described by one government source as one of the state’s most significant logistical operations – has involved daily meetings between Premier Dominic Perrottet, Education Minister Sarah Mitchell and departmental officials.

The NSW government procured 1.2 million RAT tests which were delivered to Sydney on Monday. Picture: Supplied

Mr Perrottet and Ms Mitchell have worked with their bureaucrats to ensure more than a million RATs will be on hand at schools across the state in time for the start of term in just 10 days.

The massive stockpile is growing as planeloads full of RATs arrive and are being taken to a secret Western Sydney warehouse by any means necessary, including by private taxi.

More than a million RATS arrived in the state on Monday, while 15 million more are expected to arrive in the next week.

“Rapid antigen tests will be part of the Covid-safe measures in place, and a huge logistic effort is under way to distribute them to schools for week one,” Ms Mitchell said.

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Adam Yip

“We are distributing these tests for use by students and staff, no matter which school they are at.”

Some students will be able to be tested on the first day of school but others may have to wait a day or two to allow for supplies to be delivered to every corner of the state.

There are 3107 schools across NSW, 296,516 teachers and other school staff, while there are 810,705 students in the public system and 431,257 in private or Catholic schools.

More tests will continue to arrive to bolster the state’s stockpile as the school year gets under way.

Supply issues limiting the number of RATs on pharmacy shelves are also expected to ease from February.

The operation will be a godsend to parents looking for certainty around schooling, and is expected to avert the situation in preschools last week where parents scrambled to source PCR tests.

Finer details about the return-to-school plan are still to be finalised, but Mr Perrottet will take a proposal to national cabinet on Thursday seeking agreement on a “framework” for kids to go back to the classroom. NSW and Victoria are expected to align their proposals in order to streamline settings for students in the country’s two largest states.

Mr Perrottet has remained steadfast in his plan to have the school year begin as normal and on Monday again ruled out any lockdowns after the state recorded 17 deaths and 29,504 positive cases of Covid in the previous 24 hours.

“What we can’t have – and I understand that it is a different approach to the last two years – but what we can’t have here in NSW and across the country are never-ending lockdowns,” he said.

How to register your positive RAT result

Most states now provide an online form where you can register a positive Rapid Antigen Test result.

In some states, registration for positive for Rapid Antigen Test is complulsory. You will need to register the result or face a fine.

Here’s how to do it in the states where it is available.

• Register in Victoria

• Register in New South Wales

• Register in Queensland

• Register in South Australia

• Register in Northern Territory

• Register in Tasmania

 

Government sources believe NSW has already passed the peak impact point in the current Omicron wave. But they are anxiously bracing for the number of people dying with the virus to spike over the next few weeks.

“The number of deaths are likely to be high over the coming days, but the key message is: those boosters will improve the protection,” chief health officer Kerry Chant said on Monday.

In the past week 13 per cent of NSW children aged 5-11 received their first vaccine dose.

NSW P&C Federation president Natalie Walker said parents were concerned about getting access to a vaccine for their school-aged child.

“It is just a source of anxiety for families not being able to access it,” she said.

Opposition education spokeswoman Prue Car said: “Some things are really obvious – people are asking me why there is no plan to use schools to vaccinate students aged from five to 11.

“It is making parents feel anxious because we’re less than 11 days away from the school term starting and we don’t even know what the plan will be.”