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Speaker 1: As I said, we're continuing to see those COVID cases

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Speaker 1: go through our Northern Territory schools. And joining me on

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Speaker 1: the line right now is Tabby Fudge, the Northern Territory

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Speaker 1: Council of Government School Organization's executive president. Good morning to you, Tabby.

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Speaker 2: Good morning Katie, and good morning to your listeners.

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Speaker 1: Great to have you on the show. Tabby. How is

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Speaker 1: the communication around COVID in schools going?

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Speaker 2: At the moment, the communication has been, to put it nicely,

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Speaker 2: I suppose, conflicting, confusing, ambiguous. It's just been all over

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Speaker 2: the place. I meaning, on one hand, we're hearing that

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Speaker 2: a close contact is four hours, which is so far

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Speaker 2: away from where we were last year. And then on

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Speaker 2: the other hand, we're being told in a school environment

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Speaker 2: that close contact doesn't really happen because they have research

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Speaker 2: and lunch. So it seems to be at the moment

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Speaker 2: it's a bit of a pick your own adventure to

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Speaker 2: who is a close contact and who is not.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and it is. I think at the end of

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Speaker 1: the day, what it's doing is creating sort of real

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Speaker 1: confusion for parents and caregivers. They're not one hundred percent

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Speaker 1: sure if their children are sort of deemed as a

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Speaker 1: close contact if a child in the class has COVID.

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Speaker 1: So at this point it does sound as though it's

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Speaker 1: quite confusing for everybody.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, it's incredibly confusing. It seems that we're getting conflicting

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Speaker 2: advice from the health department and the education department, you know,

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Speaker 2: and at the end of the day, the advice that

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Speaker 2: we should be following is the best qualified epidemiological health advice,

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Speaker 2: not people's opinions in some department, some bureaucrats opinion. It

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Speaker 2: needs to be following the best epidemiological health help, not

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Speaker 2: opinion based policy.

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Speaker 1: Tabby I seem to be just having a little bit

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Speaker 1: of an issue with your phone line. Hopefully it does

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Speaker 1: sort out. Have you any idea at this point in

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Speaker 1: time how extensive and how many extra cases we're sort

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Speaker 1: of expecting to see within our school system over over

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Speaker 1: today and the next couple of days.

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Speaker 2: I think if we look at what happened in Victoria

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Speaker 2: and New South Wales in term for last year, when

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Speaker 2: you know, the cases were a tiny, tiny fraction of

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Speaker 2: what they are today, we were seeing forty schools a

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Speaker 2: day in New South Wales being affected by people with COVID.

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Speaker 2: In Victoria schools with a number one cause of COVID clusters,

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Speaker 2: So I cannot see that that's going to be any

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Speaker 2: different for here and now. I mean yesterday, what was

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Speaker 2: their number, eleven hundred and thirty three, you know, And

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Speaker 2: that's the ones that we know of. That doesn't include

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Speaker 2: the asymptomatic people walking around entirely oblivious to the fact

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Speaker 2: that they have COVID and could possibly be spreading hat And.

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Speaker 1: Look, I guess there's probably a lot of parents out

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Speaker 1: there listening who are quite similar to me and thinking, look,

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Speaker 1: I'm happy for my children to go to school. I

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Speaker 1: know that there is that risk, but they're wearing their

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Speaker 1: masks and hopefully everybody's doing the right thing. I know

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Speaker 1: that there is going to be COVID through the community,

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Speaker 1: but I suppose that the most important thing at this

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Speaker 1: point is is parents and caregivers just knowing exactly what

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Speaker 1: they need to do. If there are COVID cases at

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Speaker 1: the school, well that's exactly right.

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Speaker 2: And I don't know how well the mask wearing with

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Speaker 2: children is going at the moment. I know when I

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Speaker 2: went to school drop off this morning, I could count

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Speaker 2: on one hand how many students I saw wearing masks correctly.

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Speaker 2: Most of them had them below their noses or sitting

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Speaker 2: on their chins. I mean that was walking to school

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Speaker 2: in the on the road, so you know, I'm hoping

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Speaker 2: that that's different in the actual school grounds. But you know,

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Speaker 2: it's a hard one. But I think what we really

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Speaker 2: need to be thinking about here too is, you know,

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Speaker 2: we need to be making our school community environment as

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Speaker 2: safe as we can for our staff and our students.

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Speaker 2: And you know, we've been really lucky here in the

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Speaker 2: Northern Territory. We've had two years to prepare this. You know,

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Speaker 2: when you talk to indoor air quality experts, they talk

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Speaker 2: about the flush capture kill process, which is is what's best.

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Speaker 2: You know, you're supposed to have really good ventilation, so

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Speaker 2: you're flushing out you know, old CO two ridden air

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Speaker 2: and bringing in new fresh air. You're capturing any you know, dust, pollens,

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Speaker 2: virus via a Hepper filter, and then you're also using

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Speaker 2: a kill technology like you know, something like an air

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Speaker 2: purifier or a hydroxyl system. And you know, I don't

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Speaker 2: think that we're at that point here, which is really

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Speaker 2: sad considering we've had two years to prepare and.

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Speaker 1: So Tabby the announcement that the government made earlier in

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Speaker 1: the week saying that there would be air purifying systems

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Speaker 1: or that they'd be looking at the different the different

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Speaker 1: ways that the air cons are going through the classrooms.

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Speaker 1: That's not enough at this point.

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Speaker 2: From what I understand, they're being purchased. I don't know

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Speaker 2: where they are in, whether they're in transit, whether they've

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Speaker 2: been installed. I'm not exactly sure on that point. I'm

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Speaker 2: sure if they had been installed, we would be hearing

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Speaker 2: that they've been you know, five six, seven hundred systems

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Speaker 2: installed throughout the northern territories that we haven't heard that

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Speaker 2: would indicate that they're probably still in an order process

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Speaker 2: that you know, like we look at other countries who've

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Speaker 2: been dealing with this through a lot harder and a

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Speaker 2: lot longer than we have. You know, the American government

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Speaker 2: spent one hundred and twenty two billion dollars, you know,

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Speaker 2: addressing school indoor air quality, you know, as has you know,

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Speaker 2: the United Kingdom. You know, it's a few years to prepare,

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Speaker 2: and this is where we're at. It's really really frustrating, and.

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Speaker 1: That is a very good point that you made that

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Speaker 1: you know, we have also just come off the school holidays,

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Speaker 1: so you would think that if there was going to

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Speaker 1: be work done within those classrooms, the school holidays would

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Speaker 1: be the perfect time to do it.

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Speaker 2: I know that they did do air con audits. I

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Speaker 2: think they were doing those sort of, you know, the

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Speaker 2: first second week of January, and it is part of

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Speaker 2: most schools regular maintenance programs is to do air con audits.

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Speaker 2: But you know, we need to know what the benchmarks

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Speaker 2: for those audits were. I mean, if we're hearing that,

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Speaker 2: you know they're calling in to play. You know, Australian

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Speaker 2: standards that are based back in nineteen ninety two. You know,

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Speaker 2: not only are those standards three decades or do they

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Speaker 2: take into account pandemic conditions and what we know now

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Speaker 2: about indoor air quality. I mean for schools, we know

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Speaker 2: that in a learning environment you've got to have really

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Speaker 2: good levels of good breathable air, you know. And that's

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Speaker 2: why we've been asking for CO two monitors because you know,

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Speaker 2: the research and the peer reviewed research around COO two

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Speaker 2: and the declining cognitive ability in a learning environment is

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Speaker 2: you know, it's undisputed. So you know, we should have

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Speaker 2: been doing these things for years. It's only that this

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Speaker 2: pandemic has really brought it to a head. But as

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Speaker 2: it said, you know we've known these things for a

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Speaker 2: couple of years, two years to prepare, and you know

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Speaker 2: we haven't really Tabby.

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Speaker 1: Before I let you go, I just want to ask

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Speaker 1: you to quick questions. Our parents waiting on advice from

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Speaker 1: the school executive on a daily basis when it comes

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Speaker 1: to COVID cases.

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Speaker 2: I know I am, and I got a letter yesterday

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Speaker 2: from my kids school. There's roughly twelve hundred kids that

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Speaker 2: go to my girls' school, and you know it basically

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Speaker 2: said there was a positive case on the Monday. So

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Speaker 2: you know, watch your child for symptoms, get them tested

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Speaker 2: if they have any. I think everyone. I mean, we

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Speaker 2: can see that Facebook site that started up. You know,

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Speaker 2: everyone's on there all the time, you know, wondering, you know,

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Speaker 2: is their school next? But you know, at the end

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Speaker 2: of the day, with the high caseload of numbers that

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Speaker 2: we are having every single day, I'd say it's more

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Speaker 2: a case of which school hasn't got active cases.

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Speaker 1: Well, Tabby, Sarge, we are going to have to leave

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Speaker 1: it there. The Northern Territory Council of Government School Organizations

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Speaker 1: Executive Team President thank you very much for your time

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Speaker 1: this morning.

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Speaker 2: Thank you Katie, have a wonderful day everyone too, Thanks

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Speaker 2: tabbing