Victorian schools have been unknowingly supplied with alcohol-free hand sanitiser
Victorian schools have been supplied with “useless” alcohol-free hand sanitiser, with staff and students unknowingly using the ineffective product for two days.
Education
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Victorian schools have been given alcohol-free hand sanitiser with staff and students unknowingly applying the “useless” product during the pandemic.
Principals have been left furious after litres of the alcohol-free liquid were delivered this week.
“You may as well go and run your hands under a cold tap,” Berwick Lodge Primary principal Henry Grossek said.
“We’ve been using that hand sanitiser for two days without knowing.
“It’s a bloody disgrace.”
The Victorian Government’s own guidelines to fight the spread of the coronavirus is to use a sanitiser with at least 60 per cent alcohol.
Mr Grossek’s schools received 36.5 litres of alcohol-free sanitiser on Tuesday, with staff and students using it on-site during school days on Wednesday and Thursday.
“This is about health and sanitisation,” Mr Grossek said.
“They’ve given us the least effective sanitiser — it’s useless against viruses.”
He was told alcohol-based products would be made available by the end of next week.
Victorian Principals Association president Anne-Maree Kliman said she was informed by the Department of Education that the sanitiser was ordered before the COVID-19 advice for alcohol-based products were released.
“The most important thing is children are washing their hands with soap and water first,” she said.
The Department of Education confirmed DHHS had approved the products sent to schools this week with a chemical in place of alcohol.
But it was supplying additional alcohol-based products on Thursday and into next week after delivering the same liquids at the end of term one.
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