Coronavirus NSW: Prayer retreat may have sparked Tangara School cluster

A rapidly growing cluster linked to a Sydney school may have been spread at a prayer retreat, with several of the students who went now infected.

A study and prayer retreat may have sparked a coronavirus cluster at the Tangara School for Girls in Cherrybrook.

At least 17 cases have been linked to the school including 11 students and one teacher. And now the Sydney Morning Herald is reporting that several students who tested positive attended a retreat at a convention centre in Bargo, southwest of Sydney.

The retreat was co-ordinated by the Eremeran study centre with the Catholic organisation Opus Dei.

On Tuesday, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced eight more COVID-19 cases had been linked to the Tangara cluster.

Authorities are scrambling to find the original source of the outbreak.

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Tangara School for Girls has been linked to at least 17 COVID-19 cases. Picture: Flavio Brancaleone/NCA NewsWire

The school is now closed until August 24 with all students now studying via remote learning.

“All students, staff and support staff of the secondary school are self-isolating for 14 days and being tested, regardless of symptoms,” NSW Health said in a statement.

“Students of the primary school must monitor for symptoms and get tested if symptoms develop, even when they are mild.”

Almost a third of the state’s 22 new COVID-19 cases yesterday were linked to the Tangara School for Girls, resulting in the state’s biggest spike in infections since April 17.

NSW Health also confirmed yesterday that two cases detected on the NSW south coast have been linked to the school cluster.

Wildginger, a restaurant in the Jervis Bay town of Huskisson, has closed for two weeks after two Sydneysiders visited the venue over the weekend.

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Premier Gladys Berejiklian warned it was likely the cluster would continue to grow. Picture: Flavio Brancaleone/NCA NewsWire

Illawarra Shoalhaven Public Health director Curtis Gregory confirmed yesterday afternoon the two Sydney residents had now been linked to the Tangara School for Girls in Sydney’s northwest.

“These two people are from outside the Local Health District and are linked with the Tangara School for Girls cluster. Both cases have been counted in the public health alert issued by NSW Health on August 11,” Mr Gregory said.

“Patrons and staff who were at the venue at the same time as the two cases have been instructed to self-isolate for 14 days and to get tested for COVID-19 if directed or if they develop symptoms.”

Ms Berejiklian warned it was likely that the outbreak would increase in size over the coming days.

“Any new cluster is a concern. I anticipate the number of that cluster will grow,” Premier Gladys Berejiklian said.

Ms Berejiklian urged people to be cautious about their daily activities and not take any unnecessary risks.

“My anxiety has not subsided in relation to what a knife edge NSW is on,” she said.

“We are in a pandemic. Every organisation, every entity, needs to abide by the COVIDSafe plans.

“Otherwise we risk having a surge in numbers and we also rise having a surge in clusters and none of us want to see that.”