– The government should turn around, demands Skole-Norge – Dagsavisen
– The government should turn around. This the government could really wait with. I do not understand why it is so important to introduce the leisure quarantine for teachers at the start of school, right after the Christmas holidays. They should wait until all teachers have been offered dose three, says union leader Mette Johnsen Walker in the National Association of Schools to Dagsavisen.
She has received many frustrated and desperate reactions and feedback from her members, after the government on Monday introduced so-called “leisure quarantine” for employees at the school. The scheme applies from 1 January, and involves employees being able to come to work even if they have infected close contacts.
They still have to test themselves on days three and seven, and are quarantined in their spare time. This has made it boil among teachers on social media, where several on Twitter call the leisure quarantine “house arrest”, “curfew” and “the dumbest proposal so far in the pandemic”.
Everyone gets exceptions
However, the leisure quarantine does not apply to those teachers who have received a refresher dose of the coronary vaccine (dose three). In general, it is now the case that everyone who has received a dose of wood is released from quarantine when a close contact, such as a colleague or friend, is infected. However, this does not apply to infection in the household.
– Everyone who has taken the refresher dose is exempted from the quarantine of infection for close contacts, with effect from one week after they have received the dose, writes Minister of Health Ingvild Kjerkol (Labor Party) in an e-mail to Dagsavisen.
– Refreshment dose are those who have received the third dose, or second dose if they have taken the Janssen vaccine before. If you are a household member or similarly close, you must also test yourself every day with a self-test or antigen as soon as possible, or every other day with a PCR test for seven days to be exempt from the infection quarantine, writes the Minister of Health, who encourages everyone to accept dose three when they get the opportunity.
According to the Minister of Health, the reason why there are other quarantine rules for those who have received a dose of three is because “you are better protected against being infected, infecting others and against serious illness with three doses of vaccine”. Kjerkol admits that it is possible to become infected and infect others even after dose three, but:
– The risk is lower, in addition to having increased protection against serious illness.
[ Dette er de innlagte nå ]
Will be prioritized for dose three
Meanwhile, union leader Mette Johnsen Walker in the National Association of Schools is worried about what will happen when her members have to go to work on January 3 without infection control equipment, and even if they have infected close contacts. According to NTB, the reactions to the leisure quarantine were also strong from the Norwegian Association of Lecturers, from the Trade Union and from the Education Association.
– As I perceive the new rules, it is the case that teachers and kindergarten employees are exempted from quarantine during working hours, but that they must be quarantined in their free time. With that, we can get a situation where they are at work, but will be in the leisure quarantine well beyond the spring, said Hege Valås, deputy leader of the Education Association, to NTB.
Halvard Hølleland (Labor Party), State Secretary in the Ministry of Education, however, went out on Tuesday and denied to NTB that the employees must be in the leisure quarantine throughout the spring, and at the same time emphasized that the leisure quarantine does not apply to employees who have already received the refresher dose.
The government has also asked the municipalities to prioritize employees in schools and kindergartens when issuing refresher doses. The vaccination will be in the whole gang, and may be completed during January. This is precisely why Walker believes that the government should wait until all school staff have received this dose.
– It does not matter if the government waits with the leisure quarantine a few weeks into January, she says, and is at the same time critical in principle that an entire occupational group is imposed the quarantine in their free time. Many of her members call it “house arrest.”
– I would also call it that, Walker says to Dagsavisen.
[ – Folk jobber for hardt og slites ut ]
– Should postpone
The union’s leader Mette Nord, who also sits on the governing party’s central board, also believes that the government should wait to introduce the new infection control rules. She says to NRK that she reacts to the government introducing new rules without having discussed this with the organizations of employees in the school system.
– We believe the government should postpone the introduction of new rules until after they have been discussed with the parties in working life, says Nord.
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