Covid update from Principal, Mark Jones (27 January)
The Welsh Government's First Minister Mark Drakeford recently confirmed that from Friday 28 January, Wales will move to alert level zero, unless the public health situation changes for the worse.
But what does this mean for the College?
During the autumn term, we have had consistently low numbers of cases among our student community.
This has been a result of the safety measures we have in place and your cooperation in ensuring that we all work together to disrupt the transmission of the virus.
Therefore, given Wales is now moving to alert level zero, and having consulted with the region's IMT (Incident Management Group), staff trade unions and student union, we will now look to no longer operate with the contact group model. This means that students will no longer need to stay in contact groups. This will start from Monday 31 January.
However, the following safety measures will continue to be in place:
- Wearing of face coverings in all communal areas, and in classrooms
- Physical distancing with others
- Hand washing and sanitisation
- Regular use of lateral flow tests three times a week
- Ventilation in all classrooms and communal areas.
We will continue to regularly risk assess learning environments against our covid infection control plans, and we are committed to ensuring that any further changes will only be considered through a cautious, phased and planned approach.
With restrictions slowly being lifted, and as we move ever closer to spring, please can I ask you to continue to follow the safety measurers we have in place and hopefully, sometime in the not too far away future we may be able to reduce these further.
Welsh Government will be undertaking another review on 10 February, and we will communicate any further changes to you then.
Thank you for continued support during this challenging period.
Mark Jones
Principal