(July 2022)

The NPA ACT will be following ACT Government COVID-19 health advice and restrictions as provided at the ACT Government COVID-19 website. Any outings conducted in another state or territory will need to follow the government health advice for those jurisdictions. 

As a special reminder, participants must not attend outings if they are subject to Federal or ACT Government quarantine requirements or if they have flu or COVID-like symptoms.  Additionally, NPA ACT prefers that participants are fully vaccinated for Covid-19. This is to protect our members, many of whom are in the higher risk age group and/or have underlying medical conditions. Your cooperation in this matter is appreciated.  

Before the Outing

Registration

If ACT Government health advice recommends limits to group sizes, pre-registration for an NPA outing will be required. In such circumstances, participants will need to register with the leader before the outing, providing their name and a contact phone number.  The leader will then inform the participants of the meeting place or time. 

Car-pooling

Nearly all of our outings are outdoors and thus are relatively low risk environments for the spread of Covid-19. The one exception is if car-pooling is arranged for the outing. This is considered to be a high-risk activity where up to four people from different households may be confined in a car for 30 minutes or more at a time.

In order to minimize the risk of infection, leaders should consider whether car-pooling is necessary. For example, if a walk is within Canberra or the outskirts, participants should be advised to make their own way to the start point.

For outings where car-pooling is advisable (e.g. a long way from Canberra or 4WD access only), participants should be given the option to drive themselves to the start point or nearby if they are not comfortable with this arrangement. If car-pooling is to occur, the following should be considered:

• wearing masks in the car
• opening windows if weather conditions allow
• using air conditioning set to non-recirculation mode or open vents to ensure the car is funnelling fresh air from outside into the car
• limiting the number of occupants per car to 2 or 3.

When considering the above measures, leaders should bear in mind the current Covid-19 situation in the ACT. If Covid-19 cases are relatively high then stricter measures should be implemented (e.g. no car-pooling) than if the case numbers are relatively low.

During the Outing

Participants are reminded that social distancing will be in force on the outing and they are expected to practice good hygiene, including:

keeping 1.5 metres between yourself and other people, especially at morning tea, lunch etc
avoiding shaking hands, hugging or other close contact with people.

Work Parties

In addition to the above, the following apply to work parties.

• Equipment Hygiene.

When using tools, participants are to use gloves at all times. Participants are to provide their own gloves as a first line of defence against cross-contamination.   The small quantity of gloves in the NPA tool kit will be retained as a back-up.

Most tools will be provided from the NPA (ACT) toolkit.  During the work party, sharing tools should be avoided where possible.  When sharing of tools is inevitable, hand-sanitisation measures and use of gloves are critical requirements.

• Work Teams.

Working teams will be limited to a maximum of three participants.