Two schools located just 2km apart in Sydney’s eastern suburbs have closed after a student at each tested positive for COVID-19. The news comes one day after all students across the state returned to the classroom full-time.
Waverley College sent home the 1,100 students from its senior campus on yesterday morning, after being notified by the parents of a Year-7 boy that he had tested positive for the virus.
Parents were told to come and collect their children just before 10am.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Down the road, Moriah College evacuated its campus a few hours later after New South Wales (NSW) Health notified the school that one of its students had also tested positive for COVID-19.
While public schools across the state officially reopened yesterday, Moriah and Waverley, both independent colleges, resumed face-to-face teaching last week. Moriah has confirmed the infected student was at school on Thursday.
The two schools were closed for campus cleaning and contact tracing to take place.
Originally, students in the state were not supposed to return to the classroom full-time until late July, but New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian last week brought the date forward due to declining transmission rates across the state.
NSW Minister of Education Sarah Mitchell said after Waverley College closed yesterday morning that school shutdowns were “something that we are going to have to live with.”
“We are living through a pandemic and there will be occasions from time to time that we do have a positive case that effects a school community,” Mitchell told reporters. “On any given day, one in five people in NSW are associated with a school community, whether they are a student, a parent or a teacher.”
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