The Lyneham High community have been informed a student attended school over a number of days while infectious with COVID-19, while three ANU residential halls have locked down after close contact with a positive case.
ACT Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith told ABC Radio Canberra this morning a new case in addition to the nine already confirmed in the ACT has been identified as a Lyneham High student.
“This is a new case,” Ms Stephen-Smith said.
The Health Minister advised the public can expect “a number of new cases” to be announced at today’s 11.45am press conference.
“This is to be expected … we’re likely to see new cases, we’ve had a lot of testing being done.
“This is Delta strain, so when one person gets it, it’s likely that they’re going to spread that infection.”
Ms Stephen-Smith said the student who tested positive for COVID attended Lyneham High on 9-12 August during their infectious period. ACT Health is working through specific testing arrangements for the school community.
Last week, a pop-up testing clinic at Gold Creek School was established following the identification of a positive case amongst that school community.
“We’re working through an arrangement to ensure that those contacts from Lyneham High can also get tested in a timely manner and in an orderly way, so we are prioritising those people most likely to have come into contact with the case.”
Demand for testing has skyrocketed since the identification of the ACT’s first case in many months last week.
Just over 4,500 tests were completed on the first full day of lockdown, while on Saturday just under 6,000 tests were collected.
Due to the increased requirement, the Kambah drive-through testing clinic is expected to reopen tomorrow.
In other news, three residential halls at ANU have gone into lockdown after close contact with a positive COVID-19 case.
Close contacts at Wamburun Hall, Bruce Hall and Toad Hall are isolating in self-contained apartments away from other residents and are being tested for COVID-19.
All other residents have been deemed secondary contacts and are remaining in their rooms until the University and ACT Health confirm there are no positive COVID-19 cases on site.
Find the ACT Government’s list of exposure locations in Canberra here.
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