Dear Facility User, Researcher or Visitor to ANSTO,
ANSTO Research Infrastructure and capabilities are open for business for users and visitors from Australian and international institutions, subject to certain conditions.
As of 15 March, the Australian Government has taken new measures to reduce the rate and incidence of COVID19 transmission amongst the Australian community.
Australian Government restrictions are in place for ALL international travellers to Australia, regardless of nationality or country of residence. ANSTO aligns with these measures to require:
· Self-isolation for 14 days after entry to Australia
· Self-isolation for 14 days after last contact with a confirmed COVID-19 infected person
· No attendance at ANSTO Campuses and Locations until the 14 day isolation period is concluded.
Additional travel restrictions continue to apply to travellers arriving from any part of mainland China, Iran, Republic of Korea or Italy. Travellers leaving or transiting these countries will not be allowed to enter Australia for 14 days from the time they departed the country.
For any visitor to ANSTO, if you feel unwell and have developed symptoms (fever, a cough, sore throat, tiredness or shortness of breath) prior to your visit DO NOT proceed with your visit.
Recommendations upon entry to ANSTO and its facilities
In line with Australian Government recommendations, staff and visitors to ANSTO are to practice the following good hygiene measures:
· maintain a distance of 1.5m between people;
· adopt other Social Distancing measures e.g. no handshakes on greeting;
· cover coughs and sneezes with an elbow or a tissue;
· dispose of tissues properly;
· wash hands often with soap and water, including before and after eating and after going to the bathroom;
· use alcohol-based hand sanitisers;
· clean and disinfect surfaces; and
· if you become sick while at ANSTO do not continue to access facilities or meet with staff. Self-isolate and seek medical advice. Liaise with your local contact/instrument scientist to determine a course of action in relation to the experiment.
Visitors to ANSTO not undertaking experiments are, where possible, to consider adopting video-conferencing as an alternative to meeting in person.
If you are unwell, your travel is not possible or your experiment is cancelled due to COVID-19 measures
1. Contact the ANSTO User Office (user.office.nsw@ansto.gov.au ) to confirm that you are not able to participate in the experiment
2. Liaise with your local contact/instrument or beamline scientist to determine if it is feasible to mail samples to ANSTO for staff to conduct experiments or if it is possible to undertake experiment remotely.
Where possible, ANSTO may support your scheduled experiment including remote access, using non-travel restricted collaborators or ANSTO scientists to undertake experiment if samples can be mailed to ANSTO and staff are available. Please note that not all techniques are suitable for remote access or mail-in sample processing.
Please note that ANSTO will not automatically reschedule your experiment into a future round.
· If users of the Australian Centre of Neutron Scattering or National Deuteration Facility would like to have cancelled proposals included in the 2020-2 proposal round for re-evaluation please advise the User Office NSW by Monday 20 April 2020.
· Users of other Lucas Heights capabilities and facilities including Centre for Accelerator Science might be able to reschedule within the current round. Users are to contact their ANSTO contact and the User Office NSW to investigate this option.
Please contact the ANSTO User Office (user.office.nsw@ansto.gov.au ) if you have any questions regarding this communication.
Regards,
| Dr Therese DonlevyManager User Office NSTLI |