Current Babysits policy regarding Coronavirus
By Babysits
•
4 min read
Updated November 9 2021 - Due to the Coronavirus outbreak, many parents are struggling with childcare. Not only are parents who work in vital sectors often in need of a babysitter for their children, parents who work from home and single parents may often find themselves in need of a babysitter. This is why we want to give our community the best support possible.
Taking into account the guidelines of the Ministry of Health and the New Zealand Government, we try to give our community the best possible advice. At the moment it is allowed to physically do babysitting work. However, there are some specific guidelines to follow while at Alert level 2.
Update November 9 2021: All of New Zealand is at Alert Level 2. Upper Northland, Auckland and Waikato remain at Alert Level 3.
Under Alert Level 2:
- Travelling is allowed when done in a safe way-
- All early learning services, schools, kura and tertiary education facilities are open to everyone.
- You can host or attend a gathering, but there are limits on the number of people who can attend.
- You can continue to use home-based childcare services such as babysitters or nannies and provide informal childcare, for example looking after a grandchild.
The Ministry of Health advises all of New Zealand that they should continue to do the following:
- Use the COVID Tracer app or keep a record of where you have been
- Maintain good hygeinic practices
- Stay home if you are not feeling well and get tested
Even when restrictions may have been lifted in many cases, the Ministry of Health has provided some "Golden rules" to adhere to:
- If you’re sick, stay home. Don’t go to work or school. Don’t socialise.
- If you have cold or flu symptoms call your doctor or Healthline and make sure you get tested.
- Wash your hands. Wash your hands. Wash your hands.
- Sneeze and cough into your elbow, and regularly disinfect shared surfaces.
- If you are told by health authorities to self-isolate you must do so immediately.
- If you’re concerned about your wellbeing, or have underlying health conditions, work with your GP to understand how best to stay healthy.
- Keep track of where you’ve been, when and who you’ve seen to help contact tracing if needed. Use the NZ COVID Tracer app as a handy way of doing this.
- Businesses should help people keep track of their movements by displaying the Ministry of Health QR Code for contact tracing.
- Stay vigilant. There is still a global pandemic going on. People and businesses should be prepared to act fast to step up alert levels if we have to.
- People will have had different experiences over the last couple of months. Whatever you’re feeling — it’s okay. Be kind to others. Be kind to yourself.
You can still play it safe by continuing to keep a distance from people you don’t know. Use your judgement. The more space there is between you and others, the harder it is for COVID-19 to spread.
(See https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/diseases-and-conditions/covid-19-novel-coronavirus/covid-19-health-advice-general-public/protecting-yourself-and-others-covid-19)
We ask that our community follow the advice and adhere to our policy of safe babysitting in times of social distancing. For questions you can contact our customer service.
For parents and babysitters who no longer want physical babysitting / babysitting work due to the coronavirus crisis, we have started two new features, namely remote babysitting and online homework assistance.
Do you want to know more about babysitting safely in times of social distancing or other things related to the corona virus? Find out more by checking out our articles below:
