A leading infectious disease expert warns a coronavirus outbreak at a school in Sydney's north-west could be the "tip of the iceberg" for NSW.
Key points:
- The source of a coronavirus cluster at Tangara School for Girls remains unknown
- An expert says the outbreak suggests the virus is more widespread than thought
- NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has urged schools to comply with current health orders
The cluster linked to the Tangara School for Girls now has 17 confirmed coronavirus cases: 11 students, one teacher and five social contacts.
The senior campus is closed until August 22 while all students and staff at the secondary school get tested.
The source of the cluster remains under investigation, with health authorities probing whether an external school event is to blame.
A spokesman for Tangara School for Girls, an independent Catholic school, said the school had not held any camps for its students since March when restrictions came into place.
But a spokesperson for the Northern Sydney Local Health District confirmed they were "looking at outside-school activities in which students participated".
Yesterday, Premier Gladys Berejiklian said schools should not participate in extracurricular activities and off-site gatherings, as stipulated in current health orders.
"Schools, in particular non-government schools, cannot undertake those extra-curricular activities that you do outside of a pandemic — and I can't make that message stronger," she said.
"Every organisation, every entity, needs to abide by the COVID-safe plans because otherwise we risk having a surge in numbers [and] new clusters, and no-one wants to see that."
Director of the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance (NCIRS), Kristine Macartney, said NSW had seen very little transmission among classmates and teachers.
But she said this outbreak at the Tangara School could indicate the virus was more widespread in NSW than currently thought.
"So far in term three we're seeing a number of schools and a few childcares where cases are flagging and indeed now in particularly one location we're seeing a larger number of cases being reported," Professor Macartney said.
"I think the situation that we're seeing unfold in term three is indicative of the fact that there is some community transmission now in NSW which is going undetected.
"Schools are probably acting as the tip of the iceberg … we are expecting that the virus is in the community more broadly to some level, which we do need to uncover now and understand so we can continue to see children safely attending school."
An NCIRS report published in April found of 18 cases within school communities during March and April, there was no evidence of children infecting teachers.
The findings supported the NSW Government ordering public school students back to campus after a period of home learning, a move backed by the Federal Government at the time.
The NCIRS has continued to monitor cases in NSW schools and has not found any secondary transmission among students and staff in term two either.
This outbreak is the first one to occur in a school in NSW, and while the majority of school incidents have involved only one or two cases and brief closures, others elsewhere have been more serious.
In Victoria, there have been 184 cases linked to the Al-Taqwa College, a primary and secondary school in Melbourne's outer west, which has become the site of the nation's biggest outbreak after the Ruby Princess.
It is believed a grade six teacher contracted the virus at a family gathering in late June and it quickly spread among staff and students at the school.
Victoria's Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton confirmed there was an "epidemiological link" between the college cluster and the outbreak in Melbourne's public housing towers.
In Auckland, New Zealand, an outbreak at Marist College in late March became the country's second-biggest cluster, with 96 confirmed cases of coronavirus.
The first case was a teacher who had attended school events before their diagnosis.
The source of the infection was not determined.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiZGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmFiYy5uZXQuYXUvbmV3cy8yMDIwLTA4LTEyL25zdy1jb3JvbmF2aXJ1cy1zY2hvb2xzLW91dGJyZWFrcy10aXAtb2YtdGhlLWljZWJlcmcvMTI1NDYwODTSASdodHRwczovL2FtcC5hYmMubmV0LmF1L2FydGljbGUvMTI1NDYwODQ?oc=5
2020-08-11 19:05:00Z
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