Free at-home rapid antigen tests (RATs) are to be distributed to early childhood education and care centres across Victoria.
Announced by Premier, Daniel Andrews, the expansion of the State’s voluntary education surveillance testing program is to see RATs made available to all children aged three to five attending early childhood education services.
“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,” Mr Andrews said.
“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,” he 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 Premier said the expansion of the testing program added to the 943,000 RATs being delivered to all staff working in early childhood settings.
“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.
