Springwood school may be locked down on Monday after Logan man tested for virus
Students at a Springwood high school have been told school will open as usual on Monday after a contractor working at the school tested positive for coronavirus.
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Students at a Springwood State High School have been told there will be school as usual on Monday despite a Marsden man testing positive to COVID-19.
A school spokesman said on Saturday the school will open as usual and if there was any change over the weekend, students would be notified.
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It is believed the man was a contractor working for QBuild helping with upgrades to Springwood State High School.
He had also worked at the Wacol Youth Detention Centre with QBuild before working at the Springwood school.
Students will be notified after a range of testing has been done over the weekend.
In a letter to parents, the school said it would close for 48 hours on the weekend while deep cleaning was undertaken.
“Following guidelines from Queensland Health and the Department of Education, we have closed the school for 48 hours effective immediately in order to perform a COVID decontamination clean of the areas of our school identified by the Public Health Unit as needing attention,” the letter said.
“During this time there will be no access to the school premises. All weekend school sports and extra-curricular activities at the school will cease during the cleaning process.”
Logan shoppers were told to leave shopping centres immediately today if there was no social distancing.
Sports and community hubs can continue to operate this weekend but it was important to apply to the social distancing rules.
Chief Health Office Jeannette Young said there was clearly community spread in southeast Queensland and has slapped a ban on more than 10 people gathering at homes in Logan, Ipswich, Redlands and West Moreton and across greater Brisbane.
She urged residents to be “ultra cautious” over the weekend and told higher-risk people to stay at home or maintain 1.5m social distancing.
Dr Young said the state would have a better idea of where the strain of the virus originated by the end of next week after genomic sequencing which was under way overnight.
“If you have symptoms of flu in Brisbane and Ipswich this weekend it is likely you have COVID as we have very few cases of flu,” she said.
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Health Minister Steven Miles said the contract tracers worked with youth justice through the night to track down more cases and to ensure all contacts would be traced over the weekend.
He said the new restrictions were in place in Metro North and South and aged care homes in those areas and in Logan were locked down overnight.
“Gathering rules apply immediately and include a limit of 10 in the greater Brisbane regions as well as 30 at gatherings outside those regions,” Ms Miles said.
There were 944 people tested in the last 24 hours but more needed to be tested in Logan and Ipswich this weekend.
There are testing locations across all regions which were stepped up after the women from Melbourne arrived back in Logan last month.
“There will likely be more cases to be tested this weekend,” Mr Miles said.
A Youth Justice Department spokesman said the number of youth-related crimes had dropped by 23 per cent and there were only five individuals on remand in watch houses across the state.
He said legislative changes for the coronavirus made during the year led to the department bringing in extra resources and working closely with the state disaster group.
It comes as a West End organisation linked to the Brisbane Youth Detention Centre closed their offices on Montague Road as a “precautionary step” after potential exposure to COVID-19.
Sisters Inside closed their offices on Montague Road in West End as a “precautionary step” after a girl visited their offices after being released from the Brisbane Youth Detention centre.
“She hasn’t been tested yet so we closed as a precaution,” CEO Debbie Kilroy said.
Rumours are circulating on social media that a person with COVID-19 had visited the coffee shop attached to the Sisters Inside office, however Kilroy said this was not true.
Sisters Inside Inc wrote on Facebook on Friday morning they had closed after potential exposure at their office.
“We have taken the precautionary step and closed our office as of yesterday afternoon until further notice,” they wrote.
– additional reporting by Danielle O’Neal