Covid 19 Omicron: Unvaccinated children still banned from Parliament school tours

The Beehive and Parliament Building in Wellington. Unvaccinated children are still unable to do school tours there. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Unvaccinated children remained banned from school tours of Parliament, despite the Covid-19 Response Minister repeatedly stating vaccination rules should not apply to school-related activities.

Under Parliament's Covid-19 protection framework, set by Speaker Trevor Mallard and published today taking into account recent changes, school tours at the red setting can resume, with visits by classroom size.

However, at both red and orange settings, unvaccinated children aged over 5 years and three months are not allowed to take part.

At green, tours can resume as per usual but unvaccinated children aged over 12 years and three months are banned.

Speaker Trevor Mallard. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Under previous settings, school tours have not been allowed to operate at red.

Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins has said schoolchildren should still be able to take part in activities organised through school.

A month ago Hipkins announced the Covid-19 Protection Framework would be amended to support all children to participate in school-based activities, regardless of vaccination status.

When it came to school-arranged activities, children should be able to participate fully regardless of whether they were vaccinated, he said at the time.

National's Covid-19 response spokesman Chris Bishop has consistently spoken out about schoolchildren being barred from sports and other activities because of being unvaccinated.

"This is nuts," he said about Parliament's new measures.

National Covid-19 spokesman Chris Bishop. Photo / Mark Mitchell

"Our democracy should be home to the vaccinated as well as the unvaccinated.

"Is Parliament really saying unvaccinated kids can go to school but they can't sit in the mock debating chamber and learn about democracy? Truly bizarre stuff."

In a statement, Mallard said this issue would be looked into next week.

"Thanks for pointing it out. I will look carefully at that question next week as we do the more in-depth review of the framework."

Ardern announced on Wednesday the use of the vaccine passes and most vaccine mandates would end from April 4.