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Al-Taqwa College: Alarm over mystery case at Islamic school

A teacher at the Islamic school linked to 113 Covid infections at the height of Victoria’s second wave has tested positive.

Victoria's chief health officer Brett Sutton. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Andrew Henshaw
Victoria's chief health officer Brett Sutton. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Andrew Henshaw

A Covid-19 “mystery case” has been identified in a teacher at the Melbourne Islamic school which was linked to 113 cases at the height of Victoria’s second wave.

No sooner had chief health officer Brett Sutton posted a photograph seeking to identify himself with triumphant Australian swimming coach Dean Boxall in celebration of his state reaching zero community-acquired cases for the first time since its fifth lockdown, than the state’s health department confirmed that it was investigating a new case.

“Public health actions are under way after the department was notified today of a new Covid-19 case in the community,” the department said in a statement on Wednesday evening, confirming the case was in a teacher at Al-Taqwa College in Truganina in Melbourne’s outer southwest.

“The acquisition source of this case is currently under investigation and household contacts of the case are being urgently tested.

“The department will support the school community in partnership with Western Public Health Unit. Transmission risks at the school are being assessed.

“In the meantime, the school will close, and all students and staff will be instructed via direct communications to get tested and isolate until further notice.”

Victorian Covid-19 logistics chief Jeroen Weimar said told ABC radio the teacher was a woman in her 20s who lives in the Hobsons Bay LGA in Melbourne’s inner southwest.

Mr Weimar said the Health Department believed the woman may have been infectious as early as Wednesday last week.

Al-Taqwa principal
Al-Taqwa principal

More than 2000 students and staff travel to the school from all over Melbourne, including from public housing towers in Melbourne’s inner north and west which were last year locked down amid Covid outbreaks.

The latest case is linked to a Tier 2 exposure site alert for Coles Yarraville, in Melbourne’s inner west, between 4.30pm and 5.30pm last Thursday, July 29.

Earlier, Mr Weimar said “new information” had come to light regarding a traffic controller at the Moonee Valley testing ­centre in Melbourne’s northwest, who tested positive for corona­virus last week.

The man was working at a time when positive cases attended the drive-through facility, but no direct links between him and those people have yet been officially identified.

While two of his colleagues subsequently tested positive, it is believed they caught the virus from him, and not vice versa.

“There are very strong indications, or there’s a strong line of ­investigation, around some movements that he had at work,” Mr Weimar said.

“The team is reviewing that again this afternoon and if we can confirm that connection then we’ll announce that shortly.”

Asked whether the man, who is in his 20s, had been involved in any breach of protocol, Mr Weimar said it was ”too early to say”.

“We’ve got some new information about movements around that particular worksite, and it may well be that gives us a clear connection,” he said.

“We know that genomically it’s connected, so it is part of this same Delta cluster that we’ve been working with over the last three or four weeks. But that’s the last piece of the puzzle that I’m very keen to land in the next day or two.”

Wednesday’s zero locally-­acquired cases came after only two of the 22 cases identified over the previous seven days had not been in quarantine for the duration of their infectious period, and followed an outbreak peak of 26 cases on July 22.

The total number of cases linked to the current outbreaks stood at 220 on Wednesday, with 99 active cases remaining, up to seven of which were in overseas arrivals in hotel quarantine. There were nine people in Victorian hospitals with coronavirus, two of whom were in intensive care and on ventilators.

Only 33 of 400 exposure sites linked to the most recent outbreaks remained active, and fewer than 3000 of 40,000 primary close contacts remained in quarantine, the others having completed their fortnight of isolation.

About 815,000 Covid-19 tests have been processed since the outbreaks emerged, including 30,117 on Tuesday.

Read related topics:Coronavirus

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Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/altaqwa-college-alarm-over-mystery-case-at-islamic-school/news-story/c7a81b5889d631b58c04bb61b4141d06