From the Assistant Principals...

Please see the following advice from NSW Health in regards to Covid-19 and Chickenpox:

Covid-19

Effective Wednesday 19 August 2020, the Chief Health Officer advises of further measures to minimise the risk of COVID-19 transmission in school communities. These measures are being introduced in response to the recent cases of COVID-19 in school staff and students in NSW.

NSW Health requires schools to:

• exclude students and staff with even mild symptoms of COVID-19
• encourage immediate testing for any symptomatic child(ren) or staff
• prohibit return to school for anyone with symptoms of COVID-19 until a negative COVID test result has been reported
• ensure that adults maintain physical distancing at all times
• ensure good hand hygiene at all times (such as upon entry to the school, entry to the classroom and upon exit of the classroom)

COVID-19 affects different people in different ways. Most infected people will develop mild to moderate illness and recover without hospitalisation.

Symptoms of COVID-19 include:

• fever (37.5 ° or higher)
• cough
• sore/scratchy throat
• shortness of breath
• loss of smell or
• loss of taste.

Other reported symptoms include:

• fatigue
• runny nose
• muscle pain
• joint pain
• headache
• diarrhoea
• nausea/vomiting
• loss of appetite.

In more severe cases, infection can cause pneumonia with severe acute respiratory distress.

Chickenpox:

What are the symptoms?

Chickenpox begins with a sudden onset of slight fever, runny nose, feeling generally unwell and a skin rash.

The rash usually begins as small lumps that turn into blisters and then scabs. The rash appears over three to four days. At any one time, the lesions of the rash vary in stages of development.

Symptoms usually occur two weeks after exposure to the virus.

How is it spread?

Early in the illness, the virus is spread by coughing.

Later in the illness, the virus is spread by direct contact with the fluid in the blisters.

The infection is highly contagious to people who have never had chickenpox or who have not been vaccinated.

People are infectious from one or two days before the rash appears (that is, during the runny nose phase) and up to five days after (when the blisters have formed crusts or scabs)

Chickenpox infection triggers an immune response and people rarely get chickenpox twice.

People with chickenpox should avoid others (and not attend childcare or school) until at least five days after onset of the rash and all the blisters have dried unless a medical certificate is provided to confirm that the child is safe to return.