Westminster boarding school staffer tests positive after working at Covid hot spot The Greek on Halifax
Staff from Adelaide’s Westminster School have gone into isolation after a colleague tested positive for Covid, which she likely contracted from a city restaurant linked to SA’s latest outbreak.
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Most staff at Westminster School are in isolation but few students have been affected by the school being named as an exposure site to Covid-19.
A boarding staff member at the school also works at The Greek on Halifax restaurant, where it is expected she contracted the disease.
At a press conference on Wednesday, Chief Public Health Officewr Prof Nicola Spurrier said the staffer was a woman, aged in her twenties who worked at the restaurant from 6pm to 10pm on Saturday, July 17.
Prof Spurrier said the woman saw on the news that the restaurant had been declared a virus exposure site and came forward to get tested, returning a positive result.
Westminster principal Simon Shepherd said the woman had been in contact with other staff but not students.
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Monday was a professional development day for staff and minimal students were on the campus.
“She came to work before The Greek was declared as an exposure site,” Mr Shepherd said.
“When it was declared, she immediately followed SA Health directives - but in the meantime she had been in a staff training session.”
In a cascade of secondary and tertiary contacts, staff members were then in the vicinity of other staff members during start-of-term training.
Westminster communicated with school families during Tuesday night and Wednesday morning to say the school and early learning centre were completely closed, including to children of essential workers.
Staff were already geared up to run lessons remotely although this would encounter some problems with teachers needing to under go regular Covid-19 testing.
“Despite the adversity, the school community is staying strong, sticking together and looking for ways to help each other,” Mr Shepherd said.
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