Parklands college staff, families told to get second test on Day 10
Parents, students and staff at a southside school at the centre of a COVID-19 outbreak have been asked to be retested, even after receiving negative test results. READ THE LETTER
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Parents, students and staff at a southside school at the centre of a COVID-19 outbreak have been asked to be retested, even after receiving negative test results.
Parklands Christian College will remain shut this week while further testing continues.
LOGAN SERVICES, FACILITIES REMAIN OPEN
Queensland Health sent out letters to families and the school alumni on Saturday, two days after families were tested and received negative results.
The direction from Queensland Health’s Dr Kari Jarvinen to all families in home quarantine was to have a second COVID-19 test from day 10 onwards of their quarantine period.
Park Ridge resident Elijah Buol, whose four children attend Parklands Christian College, tested negative last week after waiting in a queue for six hours.
They finally received their results yesterday (Monday night) more than 72 hours after being tested at the pop-up clinic at Parklands Christian College where a cleaner tested positive for the virus.
The family had not received their results by Saturday but were sent a letter, which was also sent to the rest of the school community.
The Queensland Health letter told families to go and get a second COVID-19 test this week.
“Understandably parents or staff may have concerns about needing to have another test for COVID-19, as per our letter to the College community yesterday, August 1, 2020,” the letter said.
“Just to note again, the reason we are requesting the testing over the next couple of days, is to minimise the risk of COVID-19 disease spreading in the College community.
“While the risk is very low, it is possible for someone to have had a negative test result a few days ago, and still be developing the disease towards the end of the period of required quarantine.”
The letter said Day 10 of the quarantine period for the Parklands Christian College community was Sunday, August 2.
It also told families not to rush to get tested on the weekend but to wait for an SMS text message to advise of the child’s allocated testing time over the next two days.
If members of the College community choose not to undertake the testing as advised, the alternative option is for those students or staff members to have their quarantine period extended by an additional 10 days to August 16.
Mr Buol said he was concerned there had been an anxious wait over the weekend and his four young children did not want to be subjected to a further test.
“We are still working out what to do as the little children do not want to have another test,” he said.
“Queensland Health should have told people last week that if they didn’t have symptoms to delay having their test until this week so that this would not have happened.
“We all tested negative and have also received SMS messages for new times to go and get tested again but we have not decided which option we will take yet.”