This week the UK Government announced new ‘Plan B’ regulations for England which come into force next week, in response to concern over the Omicron variant.
These new measures mean:
- From Friday, 10 December: face masks will be required in more public settings – including theatres and cinemas
- From Monday, 13 December: people will be asked to work from home where possible
- From Wednesday, 15 December: the NHS Covid Pass will also be required for visitors to nightclubs, indoor unseated venues with more than 500 people, unseated outdoor venues with more than 4,000 people and any event with more than 10,000 people
What does this mean for us?
Following the Prime Minister’s announcement, the Department for Education this week published updated guidance for higher education providers.
It’s really important to emphasise that the university is open. As the new regulations allow for in-person teaching to go ahead as planned we expect there to be few if any changes to your curriculum and you should continue to attend all your timetabled in-person teaching sessions.
Our COVID management strategy is deliberately cautious and aligned with the latest UK Government guidance, and because of this, very little needs to change to the current COVID-secure measures in place on our campus as a result of the new guidance. To summarise:
- The updated guidance for Higher Education providers sets out clearly that face-to-face teaching and learning should continue and staff required to support the continuation of these activities can continue to attend work, in-person.
- Laboratories and associated facilities will remain open, as they have been throughout the pandemic and all planned, face-to-face teaching should continue and sessions should not be moved online. Vaccine certification does not apply to teaching and learning.
- Research staff are deemed critical and as such, in-person supervision sessions with students should continue.
- Libraries will remain open.
- Face coverings are required in all University buildings, including the libraries. You should wear your face covering whilst seated and when moving round the building.
Testing, vaccinations and self-isolation
It is crucial that, even if you don’t have symptoms, you continue to get tested regularly (including over the winter break period) and we are strongly encouraging all our community to get both doses of their COVID-19 vaccination and booster, as soon as it becomes available. You can get a test at our on-campus test site based at the Chapel, Foresight Centre until 17 December, at one of Liverpool City Region’s testing facilities, or collect a home test-kit from the Chapel, the Guild or Sydney Jones Library, from a pharmacy or via the Government webpages.
If you have any COVID-19 symptoms or have been identified as a close contact you should get a PCR test and follow the latest stay at home guidance until you receive your result. Find out more about accessing a PCR test on our webpages.
Please note, previous guidance meant that all international students have had to isolate if they were identified as having been in close contact with a positive COVID case even if they were fully vaccinated. From now, any student whose vaccine is recognised at the UK border will now be in the same position as anyone vaccinated in the UK.
There is new self-isolation guidance for those identified as a close contact to an Omicron case. Read more here.
Review of measures in place
The Government currently intends to review these measures on 5 January 2022. We will continue to review internally and update you with further guidance should it become necessary to do so.