education
Despite the Omikron wave, school is starting again for more than 240,000 children and young people in Vienna today. If you want to go to school, you need a negative CoV test – preferably a PCR test carried out in advance. The requirement to be present is no longer required.
“Test your child before the first day of school” was an appeal to the Viennese parents in a letter before the Christmas holidays. However, this PCR test is not mandatory. According to the Education Directorate, children and adolescents without a test may not be sent back home. However, if you don’t have a current negative PCR test result, you have to do an antigen test at school.
All students will then be tested at least three times a week from Monday, two times using PCR. A third PCR test is also optional for schools in Vienna. The “Alles gurgelt” program is now also being used in elementary and special schools for testing. Up to now, the Ministry of Education’s “everything rinses” tests have been used here.
No attendance required until February 28th
The “safety phase” at the schools, originally planned until January 15th, will be extended to February 28th. This means that the requirement to be present remains suspended for this time. Parents can therefore continue to excuse their children for class without a medical certificate. In addition, tests are carried out regardless of the vaccination status. Mask must be worn in the entire school building and also in class. Teachers and everyone in high school need an FFP2 mask; mouth and nose protection is sufficient for younger children.
Distance learning in two CoV cases
The procedure for coronavirus cases remains unchanged: if there is only one case in a class, classroom teaching continues (without the positive child). However, the remaining children must then be tested daily for five days. If another case occurs in this class within three days, distance learning will be arranged for the whole class.
The new general rules – regardless of distance learning – severely limit the quarantine of students. People who have been vaccinated three times are no longer considered to be contact persons. This also applies to children under the age of twelve who have only been vaccinated twice. And even if everyone involved wore FFP2 masks throughout, no quarantine is ordered. In many cases, it will therefore happen that students have distance learning but are not in quarantine.