Covid Qld: Calls for masks in schools, vaccinated teachers

The Brisbane high school at the centre of Queensland’s latest Covid-19 case will remain closed for at least two weeks, with hundreds of students forced to quarantine. It comes as calls grow for mandatory masks and more vaccinated teachers in schools. VOTE IN OUR POLL

Queensland’s latest Covid-19 mystery case in a 17-year-old girl at Indooroopilly State High School has triggered calls for mandatory mask wearing in schools and making teachers a priority in the vaccination rollout.

Indooroopilly State High School, which is one of Brisbane’s biggest schools with an enrolment of about 2500 students, was closed on Friday while a specialist cleaning crew descended following the positive case.

The Department of Education on Friday night announced the school would remain closed for two weeks, until at least August 14, with hundreds of students now forced to quarantine.

Queensland Health also informed parents of students at the school that all pupils and staff who attended ISHS on Tuesday morning or throughout the day on Wednesday were considered close contacts.

Indooroopilly State High School will now be closed until at least August 14. Picture: Tara Croser.

They have been instructed to be tested as soon as possible, and quarantine at home for 14 days.

A pop-up testing clinic will begin operation at the school from Saturday and Monday, and will be open 8am to 4pm.

Acting Executive Principal Derek Weeks said “the health, safety and wellbeing of our school community is our priority”.

“I would sincerely like to thank the school community for their support in working with us this (Friday) morning and following the communication which the school forwarded to parents, students and staff that the school was closed,” he said.

“We are being supported by Queensland Health and other support services to ensure our community remains safe.”

A Department of Education spokesman said the school would put in place learning from home arrangements.

The University of Southern Queensland’s Springfield campus was closed for the day after three staff members attended a senior subject selection expo at the school on Thursday night.

Four Griffith University staff members who attended the expo are all isolating at home awaiting advice from Queensland Health.

A further two University of Queensland representatives who were at the expo “have not been on campus today”, a UQ spokeswoman said.

Queensland Health on Friday night said reports of a positive case at an Ormeau school were incorrect.

Indooroopilly State High School acting executive principal Derek Weeks (red mask) thanked the school community for their support. Picture: Tara Croser.

“The private pathology lab that undertook the test has confirmed this was a mistake,” Queensland Health said on Twitter.

Independent Education Union Queensland branch secretary Terry Burke said it was mystifying why masks were not compulsory on school grounds, given many teachers were exposed to hundreds of people each day.

“It’s common sense; if we should be wearing them in the community then we should be wearing them in schools,” he said.

“It’s certainly been noted as a curiosity by members that while a 17-year-old has to wear a mask on public transport or on the street, when they walk through the door of a school they don’t have to wear one.”

But Queensland Teachers’ Union president Cresta Richardson said teachers were happy to follow the advice of Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young, who has said masks in schools were not a necessity.

“We follow the medical advice and we trust the science around that,” Ms Richardson said.

But she did say teachers and school staff must be treated as a priority working group when it came to vaccine eligibility.

“They’re frontline and essential workers, they have close contact with a lot of people, and we’d like the support of the state government to make that happen.”

The schoolgirl, who is part of a family of five living in Taringa, in Brisbane’s inner west, is believed to have been infectious in the community for three days from Tuesday, two of them while she was at school.

Infectious disease physician Paul Griffin said mask wearing in schools was something that should be considered, particularly in settings such as classrooms, if the students could not socially distance.

“Social distancing is obviously a very effective method of preventing transmission,” Associate Professor Griffin said.

“If there are instances when that’s not possible … then the use of masks is particularly effective in that sort of a setting.”

Covid cleaning crew pictured at Indooroopilly State High School pictured after it was closed due to a Covid-19 case. Picture: Josh Woning.

He agreed teachers should be prioritised for the vaccine, not because a lot of transmission in schools is happening, but because of how important schools are to children’s education, socialisation and development.

“It would be really good if we could look at vaccinating particularly teachers, and eventually students, so that … school closures aren’t required,” he said.

Associate Professor Griffin said the 17-year-old’s household contacts were likely to also test positive to the virus.

“If we saw one or perhaps a number of secondary cases from either this index case, or a household contact, then … there is potential to overwhelm the capacity of our contact tracers,” he said.

Prof Griffin said that scenario could trigger another lockdown in Queensland.

“I think we’re always on the precipice of locking down,” he said.

“It doesn’t take much to do that these days.”

Dr Young expects the results of genomic sequencing on the girl’s virus later today.

She said that would determine whether she was infected with the feared Delta variant and potentially whether her case was linked to any of the 13 incursions of the virus that had infiltrated Queensland in the past six weeks.

“We know that in any particular outbreak, someone can get infected, not have symptoms and then spread the virus to someone else, which is why it’s critically important we all remain very, very cautious until the vast majority of people have been able to be vaccinated,” Dr Young said.

“I’m struggling to understand how she’s acquired it.”

‘RARE CHILD THAT WOULD BENEFIT FROM COVID-19 VACCINATION’

Children should never be vaccinated simply to protect adults, one of the nation’s top infectious disease paediatricians warns.

Professor Robert Booy, a member of the Immunisation Coalition said children have less serious cases of COVID-19 and it is ethically wrong to vaccinate children to protect the adults around them.

“The primary reasons for vaccinating a child is always for the benefit of the child,” Prof Booy said.

“There is a rare child that would benefit from a COVID-19 vaccination.”

The disease expert disagrees with the recent modelling from the Grattan Institute that shows that once 80 per cent of the population is inoculated, including children, Australia can safely begin to “live with COVID” by the end of the year.

“Maths modelling has been wrong before and children and schools are not the drivers of the pandemic. The virus is spread in the community and through households,” he said.

Prof Booy insists that children must continue to go to school through the pandemic.

“Older children need to go to complete exams and work towards their future and for socialisation and their mental health, primary school kids need to go for their wellbeing,” he said.

The expert confirms that within the school environment the wearing of masks is the number one method of protection.

“The spacing of desks, the staggering of the end of lessons so everyone is not in the corridors at once and the staggering of lunch and the spreading out of students are all things that will make a difference, Prof Booy said.

— Jackie Sinnerton