Coronavirus QLD: Parklands Christian College students and staff ordered to quarantine for 14 days
The private school at the centre of COVID-19 chaos after a cleaner went to work while infected with coronavirus is scrambling to prepare home-schooling after Queensland Health ordered all students and staff into 14 days’ quarantine.
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THE Logan private school at the centre of COVID-19 chaos after a cleaner went to work while infected with coronavirus is scrambling to prepare home-schooling with school shut for two weeks and all staff and students self-isolating.
Parklands Christian College principal Gary Cully has written to parents informing them they would have to self-isolate at home until August 6 following Queensland Health advice.
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“While this situation represents a considerable disruption to the lives of our families, we collectively support the efforts of the Metro South Public Health Unit,” the letter said.
“Our staff are now busily preparing to provide learning at home for our students.
“We will be diligently working on maintaining good lines of communication with our families, and providing online and home based education until such time as we can be together again.
“Parklands has and will continue to follow all Government directions and advice to ensure the safety of our students, staff and Parklands community, and we will continue to provide updates as they become available.
In a letter from Queensland Health, obtained by The Courier Mail, students and staff at Parklands Christian College were told they ‘must quarantine at home’ until August 6 after a COVID-positive staff member visited the premises last Wednesday and Thursday (July 22 and 23).
The staff member – cleaner, Olivia Winnie Muranga – reportedly lied to authorities about where she’d been after returning to Queensland from Melbourne and Sydney.
Both she and her travel partner, Diana Lasu, subsequently tested positive for COVID-19, igniting fears of a second wave of coronavirus in Queensland as details of the places they’d visited while possibly contagious was revealed.
A fever clinic has been set up at the Baskerville Sports Centre at the college with Queensland Health urging members of the college community to seek testing.
“There is a low risk that a student of a staff member could have been exposed to COVID-19,” the Queensland Health letter read.
“Public Health will contact all families (from the school) as soon as possible.”
Three Queenslanders – including Ms Muranga and Ms Lasu – tested positive for COVID-19 yesterday.
A third woman – the 22-year-old sister of one of the COVID-positive girls who did not travel to Melbourne – also tested positive to the virus late on Wednesday, inadvertently forcing the closure of Chatswood Hills State School where she works at the PCYC after school care.
It’s understood no letter has been issued to parents at Chatswood Hills State School, although parents at the after hours service have been contacted separately.
Queensland Health is conducting contact tracing to identify anyone who might have come in contact with the infected trio.