Coronavirus Gold Coast: Mother Sylvia Doughty is ‘scared’ her daughter is sick after positive Helensvale COVID-19 case.
Outraged parents are pulling their kids out of a Gold Coast school after a worker at a childcare centre located on school grounds tested positive for coronavirus.
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OUTRAGED parents are pulling their kids out of a Gold Coast school after discovering a worker at a before and after school centre located on school grounds tested positive for coronavirus.
A YMCA Helensvale OSHC Service employee “with some signs of illness” returned a positive COVID-19 result on Friday. The employee was last at work on Wednesday.
Sylvia Doughty, who has children in Year 1 and Year 3 at Helensvale State Primary School, told the Bulletin she was “shocked and scared” the school was not closing down.
“This situation makes me scared and angry,” she said.
“I think we need to keep them home before it spreads like wildfire and then we’re left asking why didn’t the school get shut down earlier.”
Health Minister Steven Miles said the Helensvale case was one of 37 diagnosed in the last 24 hours in Queensland, which brings the state’s total to 221.
Ms Doughty said she wanted to keep her two kids safe as they had underlying lung conditions.
“Knowing that my daughter played with a child who had been at the after-school care is scary,” she said.
“I know a lot of other parents are keeping their kids home too.”
The YMCA facility, which is located by the school oval, is rated to cater for a maximum of 165 children.
Health authorities have contacted the parents of students who use the service to advise them their children need to be kept quarantined at home for two weeks.
Today, the department’s Emergency & School security team deployed hygienists and specialist cleaning teams to the site.
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In a letter to parents late on Friday, Helensvale State School Principal Heidi Booth advised the YMCA would close but the primary school would be open next week “so the majority of students can continue with their learning.”
“I want to assure you that YMCA and our school are co-operating fully with Queensland Health in response to this news,” Ms Booth said.
“Let me rest assure you that we are taking swift action in response to this matter.”
Ms Doughty believes the school was following procedures consistent with Queensland Health COVID-19 protocols – but it was not enough.
“If we keep the kids home voluntarily their absence will be deemed unauthorised, so we’ll be going to the doctor to see what we can do,” she said.
“We have family in the vulnerable category and I do not want them to be exposed.
“It is too close to home now to ignore it.
She said the communication has been conflicting between YMCA and the school.
“They have been telling us different things but the bottom line is that schools need to close. It just needs to be taken more seriously – at the moment it’s not.”
Helensvale State School posted on their Facebook page today that some parents did not receive the email from the principal as it had “gone straight to spam in some cases”.
Ms Booth said in the Facebook post that her “number one priority has been and will be continue to be, the safety and wellbeing of our staff and students”.
Several parents have commented on the post. One said she was also keeping her children home on Monday and “the Department of Education should waive the penalty rules on attendance at this difficult time and give parents the flexibility if they wish to keep their children home”.
On Wednesday the director general of education Tony Cook advised principals that schools would only close if a coronavirus case impacted school students or staff.
“At this time, the only exceptions to this is where a school may be asked to close when a confirmed COVID-19 case is identified that closely and directly impacts school students or staff and where contact tracing may be required.”
State Health Minister Steven Miles said public health staff were contacting all parents whose children have come into contact with the staff member to provide them with health information and quarantine procedures.
“Again this just underlines how incredibly important it is that we all work together,” he said.
“That all of us take the health advice.”
Queensland chief health officer Jeanette Young said if anyone has a fever over 37.5C or a cough or sore throat, they have to stay at home.
“If you then have a positive result for coronavirus you have to be in isolation,” she said.
“You cannot come in contact with anyone at home, have no visitors and under no circumstance can you leave your home.”
For further information about COVID-19 call 13 HEALTH (13 43 25 84).
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