Kindergarten to close for cleaning following COVID confirmation

Colac’s Wydinia Kindergarten and Early Learning Centre sent a statement to the community yesterday following confirmation that a staff member had tested positive to COVID-19.

The kindergarten will close for three days from tomorrow to allow for contact tracing and a deep clean.

The statement reads:

Mr Sandy Morrison, CEO, BCYF:

“BCYF can confirm that a staff member at Wydinia Kindergarten and Early Learning Centre has tested positive to coronavirus (COVID-19). Following advice from the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), the service will be closed to all children and staff from 31 August 2020 for three days initially.

Buy the Colac Herald print edition, which has full coverage of all the region’s news and sport.

Where To Buy

The health and safety of children, families and our staff remains our main priority at this time. During the initial closure we will work with DHHS to undertake a full risk assessment and a professional deep clean of the service will be conducted. 

DHHS has advised that all children and staff are requested to remain at home while contact tracing occurs. Children who are identified as being a potential close contact will be contacted by DHHS. 

We understand this will be a difficult time for families, however we want to ensure the Colac community that we are working with, and following all directions from, DHHS to support the safeguarding of the health and wellbeing of our Wydinia Kindergarten and Early Learning Centre staff, children and families.

In line with the latest advice from the Victorian Government, BCYF’s kindergartens have remained open during the COVID-19 pandemic. During this time, to help keep everyone safe and healthy, BCYF has put a number of strategies in place at all of our Kindergartens to prevent the spread of COVID-19. This includes more frequent cleaning and disinfection, new procedures when dropping off and collecting children, and children and educators continuing to practice good hand and cough hygiene.

We will continue to follow advice from DHHS and the Department of Education and Training (DET) and will keep families updated as we receive further information.

We wish our staff member a speedy recovery and look forward to welcoming them back to the service once they’ve recovered.  Due to privacy reasons the staff member’s identity will not be publicly disclosed.”