Brisbane teacher tests positive for COVID-19 closing school to voters

A Brisbane teacher has tested positive for COVID-19, closing the school today to confused voters turning up to vote in the Brisbane City Council election.

Bulimba State School is expected to reopen on Monday for children of essential workers.

A TEACHER at Bulimba State School has tested positive for COVID-19 with authorities closing the school to voters in the Queensland local government elections today.

The school was listed as a polling booth on the Electoral Commission of Queensland website for the Brisbane City Council election and has been closed as a last minute precaution.

A makeshift sign advises the closure of Bulimba State School for voters.

The school has about 800 students. It was open for its last day of Term 1 on Friday and was to remain open to students of essential workers next week as the school moved to student free days on Monday to return on April 20.

Confused voters have turned up to the school to find signage directing them to nearby booths.

The COVID-19 case follows weeks of criticism of the Queensland Government for not closing schools.

Parents and teachers were advised by the school last night.

An Education Department spokesman confirmed Queensland Health had advised “a person associated with Bulimba State School” had tested positive for coronavirus.

Asked if that person was a teacher the spokesman said he could not comment further on the identity of the person.

“The person is currently in self-quarantine as a precautionary measure,” he said.

Queensland Health is now undertaking contact tracing and as a matter of further precaution the school will be closed for deep cleaning by specialists today.

“The school will continue to liaise closely with Queensland Health and follow its advice in relation to any actions it needs to take to minimise any risks to students and staff.”

The spokesman said it was anticipated that the school would be open from Monday for children of essential workers to attend as usual.

An Electoral Commission Queensland spokesman said Bulimba State School had been removed from the list of polling booths on their website.

“The Electoral Commission provides over 1300 booths around Queensland. It is common for some to be moved or closed for logistical or operational reasons, sometimes at short notice. Bulimba State School is one of those,” he said.

The Electoral Commission of Queensland website has further information on alternative polling booths in the area.

State Member for Bulimba Di Farmer said she could not confirm anything further than the case was a person closely associated with the school.

“Queensland Health has started contact tracing straight away so anybody that may have been in contact with that person has been notified,” she said.

“The Education Department is doing a fantastic job of making sure the school is cleaned efficiently and Queensland Health is making sure it is doing everything it can to keep everybody safe and the school community has responded in a responsible way in recognising that these are new and different times and of course the safety of the kids is absolutely paramount.”

Asked if the Government should have acted sooner to close schools Ms Farmer said the Government had been acting on the advice of the chief health officer.

“We are facing a pandemic and the important thing is we want to contain it and to manage these things and what I’ve seen is the process kicked in absolutely straight away to ensure that every action to ensure the kids and the staff of the school were safe.”