Two Sydney schools were forced to close on Tuesday, after students tested positive for coronavirus. Both schools are located in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, raising new fears about the spread of Covid-19 in the area.
One of the schools, Moriah College in Queens Park, was informed by New South Wales Health on Tuesday morning that a student had tested positive for the disease. The school was subsequently evacuated. It was also being sanitised, according to reports.
Nearby, Waverly College was also evacuated on Tuesday after being notified one of its students had tested positive for coronavirus.
“We immediately activated our critical response to get the boys home quickly and safely,” the school’s Deputy Principal Patrick Brennan said in a statement.
“The students who were unable to have parents collect them directly were sent directly home on private buses that the college organised.
“We have been in touch with those students and staff members who have been directly in contact with the student and are awaited further direction from NSW Health.”
The closures have sparked a run Covid-19 testing facility in nearby Bondi. Cars were queued up with drivers and passengers waiting to be tested on Tuesday afternoon, according to 9News.com.au.
The NSW state government has been urging anyone in the state with even mild symptoms of the disease to get tested. The state’s schools were only officially reopened this week as part of the easing of lockdown measures.
These latest Sydney schools coronavirus closures follow last week’s closing of St Ignatius’ College Riverview in Lane Cove when a student there also tested positive.
Sydney’s eastern suburbs have been a hotspot for coronavirus spread in Australia. Cases of Covid-19 have been identified in the Waverly council area since early in the crisis. Almost all of them were linked to overseas travel. Some, however, were locally transmitted.
Images of overcrowding on Bondi Beach, in the Waverley council area, against official coronavirus advice went around the world in March. State and federal governments moved more rapidly on lockdowns following the incident.
NSW has experienced the highest proportion of Covid-19 cases and deaths in Australia, according to health.gov.au. As of Tuesday, NSW had recorded 3,092 cases (including those from the Sydney schools) of coronavirus infection, with 48 deaths. There had been 7,133 cases and 102 deaths Australia-wide.
