Coronavirus: Covid-19 forces closure of 500 childcare centres

The action is exacerbating staff shortages in shops and hospitals as frontline workers are forced to stay home with their children.

Omicron outbreaks have forced hundreds of childcare centres to close due to staff shortages.

More than 500 childcare centres are closed because of Omicron outbreaks, exacerbating staff shortages in shops and hospitals as frontline workers are forced to stay home with their children.

In NSW, where 280 centres have closed in Sydney alone, the state’s Education Department will send a “small number’’ of rapid testing kits to daycare centres this week, and mandate booster vaccinations for all staff.

Australian Childcare Alliance vice-president Nesha Hutchinson warned of more closures as centres are left short of staff required to care for children.

Ms Hutchinson, who owns two daycare centres in Ryde and Baulkham Hills in the city’s northwest, is paying teenagers to drive around to find rapid antigen tests in pharmacies so she can test her staff every second day.

Covid-19 testing is not mandatory in NSW childcare centres but Ms Hutchinson, who is recovering from Covid-19, said she did not want any staff, children or families catching the virus. “I’m spending $200 a day on tests and have spent $12,000 on securing tests at different online retailers who all said to get back to them in two or three weeks,’’ she said.

“I’ve just recovered from Covid that hit me like a freight train, and I don’t want any of our families to go through that at a time when the health system is completely overloaded. I don’t care about the expense, I just want the tests to be available.’’

Goodstart Early Learning, Australia’s biggest childcare chain, has hundreds of staff isolating because of Covid-19 illness or exposure. Goodstart head of advocacy John Cherry said the childcare provider had written to all state premiers three months ago urging them to supply free tests for childcare staff.

Goodstart sourced some of its own tests in December but does not have enough for to screen all staff. “We have hundreds of staff in isolation because they are Covid-positive or close contacts, and across the sector it would be in the thousands,’’ Mr Cherry said.

“We could see this coming.’’

The Parenthood executive director Georgie Dent said more essential workers would be forced to stay home as childcare centres closed from Omicron outbreaks.

“It’s clear that workforce shortages are precarious across a range of essential services – our hospitals, pathology labs and supply chains for supermarkets,’’ she said.

“If parents can’t access early education and care, they can’t go to work.’’

Ms Dent called for clear and consistent national rules on isolation and testing for Covid-19 in childcare centres, where children are too young to be vaccinated.

Ms Hutchinson said rapid testing had identified Covid-19 in one staff member who did not have any symptoms until a day after the test. “They could have infected 30 children and 10 staff and all their associated families,’’ she said.

The NSW Education Department would not reveal how many tests would be distributed to childcare centres. “To support management of positive cases, the department is sending (testing) kits to all services to allow educators to start testing following a positive case exposure and return to work so (they) can continue to operate,’’ a spokeswoman said.

In a memo to childcare ser­vices, the department says testing and isolation is strongly recommended but no longer mandatory in childcare. “Families should be reminded that any child experiencing even the mildest of symptoms should have an RAT and be kept at home until symptoms resolve, even if the test is negative.’’

The Victorian government supplies free rapid at-home tests to childcare centres for use by children who are close contacts of positive cases.

The Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority said childcare centres “must act as a priority to protect the health, safety and wellbeing of children, their families and staff’’.