Dr Kerryn Coleman said schools would be brought in line with the changes to the testing and quarantine procedures which will mean vaccinated close contacts of a confirmed case will need to stay home for seven days and can return to school with a negative COVID-19 test on release.

"Our aim is to try and reduce schools shutting as much as possible," Dr Coleman said.

"There was also some advice around the cleaning needs that will also limit the amount of time that schools and other venues will need to be closed for cleaning as well moving forward."

Previously when there has been a confirmed COVID-19 case at a school setting, the campus has been closed for at least two days for a deep clean and all classes were cancelled during that time.

All close contacts were previously asked to isolate for 14 days and receive a negative test result before returning to school.

Schools have been focusing on keeping cohorts of students separate as they return to campus by changing timetables, allocating specific areas for breaks and changing pick up procedures.

The aim of this strategy is to contain the number of close contacts of a potential COVID-19 case to a certain year level or area of the school.

Dr Coleman said the new approach to COVID-19 exposures in schools was still being worked through, but there could be differences with the way incidents were handled in high school, primary school and early childhood settings depending on the different vaccination coverage.

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"It's really important that we have a similar way that we manage cases and contexts across both the school setting as well as the community so everybody can understand it, it's very clear and we're using the same risk-based approach," she said.

"So while we're still really trying to refine exactly how it will be applied in schools, and we're working very hard with education directorate, as well as schools, it very much will try and narrow our focus as much as possible for close contacts and deal with them in the similar way."

She said more information would be available for parents and schools soon.

Dr Coleman said there had not been an exposure at a school campus since the new quarantine requirements came in.

However, there was a COVID-19 case which unknowingly attended St Benedict's Primary School in Narrabundah last week. The school closed for two days for deep cleaning as a result.

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