A Melbourne principal will contest a suspension after inviting students to attend school during lockdown, as Victoria reported 1638 new local COVID-19 cases.

More than 30 coronavirus cases were linked to an outbreak at Fitzroy Community School last month, which spread to students, teachers and household contacts.

The independent primary school of 60 students had been inviting all parents to send their children to class, a move it publicly defended.

Principal Timothy Berryman was handed an interim suspension by the Victorian Institute of Teaching, pending an investigation. The suspension came into effect on Wednesday.

VIT has the power to suspend a teacher’s registration if it forms the view “the teacher poses an unacceptable risk of harm to children” or it is “necessary to protect children”.

Mr Berryman described the suspension as frustrating and claimed school closures represented a “much greater risk” to children’s wellbeing than the impacts of catching COVID-19.

“It’s very odd that I’ve been portrayed as the bad guy when I’ve been trying to look after the children as good as possible,” he told ABC Radio Melbourne on Thursday.

He plans to fight the interim suspension.

It comes as Victoria confirmed 1638 new local cases and two deaths on Thursday, taking the toll from the current outbreak to 70.

It is also the second highest daily case tally of the state’s third wave and has pushed active infections past 15,000.

More than 77,000 Victorians were tested for the virus in the 24 hours to Thursday morning, while 36,672 vaccinations were administered at state-run sites.

Meanwhile, authorities are racing to identify vulnerable young patients who were exposed to a COVID-19 outbreak at a Melbourne children’s hospital cancer ward.

A patient’s parent spent at least four days at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Parkville while infectious between October 1 and October 4.

The hospital’s Kookaburra cancer care ward has been identified as a tier one exposure site, and its main street walkway has been listed as a tier two site for September 26.

RCH chief executive Bernadette McDonald said all affected patients, parents or carers have been put into single rooms at the hospital to quarantine for 14 days.

No child in the cancer ward had tested positive as of Wednesday evening, but the hospital has 12 COVID-19 positive patients under its care, with four in other wards and eight being treated at home.

AAP

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