A Catholic primary school in Waverley has abruptly shut down face-to-face classes after a Year 3 student has tested positive for COVID-19. The student’s case has been regarded as a “mystery” as it’s deemed unlinked to the growing cluster in the Bondi area.
Officials from St Charles’ Catholic Primary School confirmed that the student, one of the 10 new cases in Waverley as of 22 June 2021, is currently in isolation and those with close contacts to the positive case have been isolating as well.
“We are working closely with the Ministry of Health to communicate its advice to our parent community,” the school authorities said in an issued statement.
NSW Health has been conducting tests and contact tracing as the school has shifted to remote learning for the remainder of Term 2.
The Waverley Catholic primary school is due to begin its school holidays after 25 June 2021. The school officials said that they are expecting to return to face-to-face classes when Term 3 starts on 13 July 2021.
According to Dr Jeremy McAnulty of NSW Health, they are conducting a “tried and true process” of contact tracing for the student’s case. Whilst there are no obvious links to the Bondi cluster, the experts are doing “painstaking work” to probe into the mystery deeper.
However, infectious diseases expert Professor Robert Booy said that primary school kids are generally considered “low risk” and are less likely to transmit the virus.
“I’m not alarmed by a primary school child having an infection, other than the fact that we don’t know the chain of transmission,” Prof Booy said.
However, there has been a growing concern about the existence of the more transmittable Delta variant, which has been spreading across the United Kingdom among the younger population. The experts said, based on the data from the U.K., it’s the young ones who have been susceptible to COVID at this stage since many of their older population have been vaccinated.
Recent vaccine figures in Australia show that of the 6.72 million vaccines administered as of 22 June, only 4.3 percent are fully vaccinated. The experts said that 80 percent of the population, including children, should be fully vaccinated to prevent the spread of the dominant Delta strain.
