Guidelines for your safety and wellbeing during COVID-19
Since our very beginnings the safety and wellbeing of our guests, staff and the people in the places we visit, has been of the greatest importance to us.
The virus responsible for COVID-19 adds an additional challenge to our safety planning but with your help we expect to provide you with the same high-level touring experience Canberra secrets Personalised Tours has become known for.
Due to how the COVID-19 virus spreads (through contact with an infected person or by touching a contaminated surface), the most effective control measures are through physical distancing and enhanced personal hygiene practices, such as washing and sanitising hands.
In Australia we have experienced very low rates of community transmission of the COVID-19 virus due to the widespread adoption of these control measures but even with such low rates of infection it is important to remember the risk of transmission is never zero.
Now more than ever, we have the responsibility to look out for each other. The possibility that any of our or your personal contacts in the previous 28 days may test positive to the COVID-19 virus and then be contact traced back to either of us, reinforces this responsibility when we join a Canberra Secrets tour. If this scenario were to occur, we would be required to suspend the tour until we are authorised by health authorities to continue.
Our collective behaviour controls the fate of the tour group so please be especially diligent about physical distancing and washing your hands in the weeks leading up to and whilst you are on tour with us.
Canberra Secrets Personalised Tours COVID-Safe control measures
The following are some of the more important control measures we have put in place to minimise the risk of transmission of the COVID-19 virus. They are informed by health advice provided by Australian authorities and the World Health Organisation and we continue to monitor this advice and revise our procedures accordingly.
If you have any questions about the control measures listed below please contact us by phone or email.
By booking on one of our tours you agree to comply with these measures. Canberra Secrets reserves the right to deny you from joining or continuing on a tour for failure to comply with these requirements.
Your responsibilities prior to travel
If you are experiencing any symptoms of COVID-19, no matter how mild, (including fever, chills, a cough, sore throat, shortness of breath, runny nose, fatigue or loss of smell and/or taste) prior to joining the tour you must inform us immediately and defer your travel plans until you have received medical advice that you are allowed to travel.
You MUST NOT join the tour if you have ANY symptoms potentially consistent with COVID-19.
To cancel or transfer a tour booking under these circumstances please follow the procedure outlined in our COVID-19 flexible booking reassurance.
Pre-tour health declaration
Prior to joining the tour we will be asking all our guests and staff to complete and sign the following declaration.
- Have you travelled outside Australia within the last 14 days? Yes/No
- Are you waiting to be informed of the results of a recent COVID-19 test? Yes/No
- Are you currently required to be in isolation because you have tested positive to the COVID-19 virus? Yes/No
- Have you visited a known or declared COVID-19 virus hotspot within the last 14 days? Yes/No
- Have you visited or resided in a suburb or postcode area with active cases of COVID-19 within the last 14 days? Yes/No
- Have you been directed to a period of quarantine as a result of being a close contact of someone who has tested positive to the COVID-19 virus? Yes/No
- Are you experiencing or have you experienced any of these symptoms in the previous 48 hours?
- Fever: Yes/No
- Chills: Yes/No
- Cough: Yes/No
- Sore Throat: Yes/No
- Shortness of Breath: Yes/No
- Runny Nose: Yes/No
- Fatigue : Yes/No
- Loss of Smell and/or taste: Yes/No
You must not join the tour if you have ANY symptoms potentially consistent with COVID-19.
Anyone who has symptoms of COVID-19, even if they are mild, must get tested.
Temperature screening
To support our daily pre-screening questionnaire Canberra Secrets Tours may also adopt the proactive measure of taking the temperature of all guests and staff before the tour. If you record a temperature of 37.9 degrees Celsius or above you will be excluded from the tour (this is a generous temperature threshold and recommended by the Queensland Tourism and Accommodation Industry COVID-Safe Plan).
You will not be allowed to join or continue with the tour if you answer ‘yes’ to any of the pre-screening questions or if we record your temperature as being 37.9 or higher. In these circumstances you will only be allowed to rejoin the tour after receiving clearance from a Doctor.
Cancellation
If you need to cancel your tour booking because:
- you develop COVID-19 like symptoms (such as fever, chills, a cough, sore throat, shortness of breath, runny nose, fatigue or loss of smell and/or taste), or
- you have been contact traced requiring you to quarantine, or
- you test positive to COVID-19,
our COVID-19 flexible booking reassurance applies.
Physical Distancing
With the exception of when we are travelling in the vehicle, see below, please adhere to the physical distancing recommendations of staying 1.5 metres away from people you don’t live with.
If you think you are the right distance from someone – just take a step back – to make extra sure.
When waiting in line for any reason, such as entry to sites, waiting for security process, waiting in cafes, or walking through busy areas, please be patient and give others space so they can also give you space.
Please greet people with a smile or wave — don’t shake hands, hug or kiss as a greeting or farewell.
Practise good hygiene
We provide hand sanitiser and you will have access to hand washing facilities at most of our tour stops.
Please take the following hygiene actions before and whilst on tour:
- Wash or sanitise your hands for at least 20 – 30 seconds, using soap and water or a hand sanitiser each site visit, before meals, or after using the toilet.
- Don’t cough or sneeze into your hands! Cover your nose or mouth with a tissue, then throw it away in a bin and wash or sanitise your hands. If you don’t have a tissue, cough or sneeze into your elbow or upper sleeve.
- Do not snort or spit.
- Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands.
- Do not share drink bottles, glasses, crockery or cutlery other than with people you live with.
Tour vehicles
Our Canberra Secrets Personalised Tour vehicle will have been cleaned and disinfected prior to your tour. At the end of the tour, you may be asked to take some sanitising wipes and wipe over surfaces you may have touched. You will then be asked to place these wipes in a plastic bag, which will then be disposed of by our staff. The vehicle will undergo additional cleaning after you exit.
Wearing of face masks in vehicles
While the wearing of face masks is not mandatory in the Canberra Secrets Personalised Tours vehicle, this may change, or there may be occasion that you are asked to do so. Canberra Secrets will provide you with a fresh mask if this is the case. The mask must be worn to cover the nose, mouth and the side of the face and be worn while boarding, while in the vehicle and when disembarking.
This link shows you how to put on, use, take off and dispose of a mask.
Hand hygiene will be observed and enforced before masks are fitted and after the mask has been discarded in a bin after disembarking.
We will be cleaning our vehicles and sanitising the touch points at the end of each day.
Luggage
In line with the guidelines set by Safe Work Australia we will be asking you to load and unload your own luggage, should you need to have luggage with you. If you have a physical condition that prevents you from loading your bag, please let us know and we will load your bags once everyone else has done so.
COVIDSafe App
To accelerate contact tracing in the event you are exposed to the COVID-19 virus the Australian Government is urging everyone in Australia to download the COVIDSafe app. Canberra Secrets recommends you download the app before you travel and ensure the COVIDSafe app is running on your smart phones at all times whilst on tour.