Fifteen sites across 14 ACT schools have now be listed as COVID-19 exposure locations, as the number of Canberra schools affected by the outbreak continues to grow.
Four sites across St Clare’s College, Canberra Girls Grammar School and Lanyon High School have all been added to the ACT Government’s COVID-19 school exposure location list overnight.
All school communities impacted have been contacted with students and staff receiving support from ACT Health and the Education Directorate.
Education Minister Yvette Berry said while she did not know the exact number of cases that had been identified, all close contacts have been contacted by health authorities and there is only one school that’s had infections contracted – Wanniassa School.
Ms Berry confirmed to media today she did not have an update on yesterday’s number of cases detected at Wanniassa School which stood at 39.
Declaring the exposures “a situation that was not unexpected”, Ms Berry assuredly said ACT schools have prepared to respond to situations just like the one currently playing out.
Over the weekend Education Directorate and ACT Health staff have worked to make sure families carers and students knew about the processes and health advice moving forward.
Everyone affected has been contacted individually by ACT Health and by their school communities within instructions on testing and their quarantine requirements.
“It’s been a really good process, but I know this is something people didn’t want to deal with in that first week back of school,” Ms Berry said.
Contact tracing is still occurring across all school cases. The Education Minister expects numbers will “fluctuate and change” as that process continues.
The 14 ACT schools listed as COVID-19 exposure sites as of 8 November include:
- Namadgi School – Boddington St campus
- St Anthony’s Parish Primary School
- Gordon Primary School
- Wanniassa School – both senior and junior campuses
- Ainslie School
- Melrose High
- Orana Steiner School
- Namadgi High School
- Holy Family School
- Erindale College
- St Clare’s College
- Canberra Girls Grammar School – including the boarding house
- Lanyon High
People with children attending the affects schools who have not been contacted directly by ACT Health can continue as per normal.
The ACT today has officially surpassed 95 per cent of the population being fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
The official number had sat on 94.4 per cent since Friday 5 November before ticking over to 95.1 per cent today as ACT Health did not update their vaccination data over the weekend.
13 new cases of COVID-19 were recorded in the ACT in the 24 hours to 8pm yesterday while 12 people recovered overnight, bringing the total number of active cases to 136.
1,742 cases have been recorded during this outbreak.
As at 8pm last night there was one patient in hospital with or due to COVID-19 in intensive care and on ventilation.
With AAP
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