Epping Boys High School ordered to close after student tests positive for coronavirus

Epping Boys High School will be closed on Friday after a year 11 student tested positive for coronavirus.

The 16-year-old boy, who has moderate to mild symptoms, was diagnosed with COVID-19 on Thursday evening and is believed to have caught the virus from an infected person already identified by health authorities.

The one-day closure will allow the school and health authorities to identify and contact anyone the boy has been in contact with while potentially infectious, and contain any spread. He is the first child in NSW to be diagnosed with COVID-19.

The boy is the 25th confirmed coronavirus case in NSW. Two other cases were confirmed late on Thursday, as health authorities warn the virus cannot be contained and is spreading in the community.

Roughly 1200 students are enrolled at Epping Boys High School in north-west Sydney.

Parents received an email from the school principal Tim O'Brien after 10pm on Thursday to inform them the school would "not be operational" on Friday and advising students and staff to stay at home and self-isolate over the weekend.

"Staff and students will be contacted and advised if they can resume school as normal on Monday, 9 March 2020 or if a further quarantine period will be required," the email read.

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard said the decision was made in very difficult circumstances.

"The pathology results came into NSW Health on Thursday night and the challenge for Health was then to work out whether we could track all the young man's contacts in the space of just a few hours," he said.

Health Minister Brad Hazzard said the decision was made in difficult circumstances.Credit: AAP

"The answer, in the end, was Health could not do that so on a precautionary basis, a decision was taken in consultation with the Education Minister to close the school on Friday, effectively giving NSW Health three days to trace the young man's contacts."

"The young fellow ... he is not bad, but he is not well."

It was possible other students could have caught the virus "but I am hoping against hope that is not the case", Mr Hazzard said.

"We expect over the weekend there will be a detailed examination of where the student has been since he contracted the virus and with whom he has been in contact," he said.

Epping Boys High School has been closed for one day after a student tested positive for coronavirus. Credit: Getty

"I implore parents not to panic but to make sure your child stays home," Mr Hazzard said.

"I trust parents will appreciate the decision is made in the interests of their sons and friends who may have come into contact with the young man.

"I am so apologetic to parents who will find this as an inconvenience if they need to work or have other obligations, but the world is in an extremely challenging time and unfortunately it has come to Epping Boys High."

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said "our first concern is for the health of the school's students, and it was decided that until we learned more about this specific case, the school should be closed as a precaution."

"I'd encourage the community to remain calm at this time as the men and women in our health system continue their excellent work to minimise the impact of COVID-19," Ms Berejiklian said.

Mr Hazzard said the outbreak had reached a new phase in the state.

"We do know that containment is ... an unlikely outcome," he said.

Secretary of Education Mark Scott said "education has well-prepared continuity plans and is contacting students, parents and the broader school community to provide advice and support."

Epping Boys High School is less than two kilometres away from Macquarie University's Banksia and Gumnut childcare centre that cares for 17 children who were tested for coronavirus on Thursday evening after they visited a nursing home where four residents and an assistant nurse were diagnosed with COVID-19.

The BaptistCare Dorothy Henderson aged care facility, the site of the small coronavirus outbreak and which is now in lock-down, is also located a couple of blocks from Epping Boys High School.

The other two newly confirmed cases are a 94-year-old patient at the Dorothy Henderson Lodge and a Goulburn local who returned from Singapore on February 28 on QF02 and subsequently travelled to Darwin on March 2 on QF840.

The state's Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant said NSW Health was immediately establishing contact with all new cases and their families, as well as their close contacts, and advising them to self-isolate for 14 days, monitor their health and be tested for COVID-19 should they become unwell.

"More information about the latest cases will be disclosed as soon as their contacts and movements are established," NSW Health said.

The virus has now stretched across Sydney, with a 30-year-old woman diagnosed at Northern Beaches Hospital, a man in his 50s diagnosed in Cronulla and a 27-year-old female trainee doctor at Liverpool Hospital all confirmed cases.

"NSW Health is continuing to find and respond to cases as they are diagnosed to slow any spread of COVID-19 in the community."

"NSW has planned for a situation where there is community spread of COVID-19 in Australia through the development and deployment of whole-of-government and NSW Health Influenza Pandemic Plans which are available on the NSW Health Website," the statement read.

If you are unwell, call ahead before visiting your GP or phone healthdirect for advice on 1800 022 222. GPs can arrange for COVID-19 testing, or if you are very unwell, you can also call ahead before attending your local emergency department for assessment, the ministry advised.

NSW Education Minister Sarah Mitchell on Thursday flagged the possibility of localised school closures if there was evidence the virus was spreading in certain pockets of Sydney.