Coronavirus: Tangara School for Girls students ‘saw the outbreak coming’

Families at Sydney’s Tangara School for Girls say students had suspected there would be an outbreak and panic has now set in.

Tangarra School for Girls in Sydney’s Cherrybrook. Picture: Adam Yip

Families at Sydney’s Tangara School for Girls, which now has a cluster of 20 coronavirus infections, say students had suspected there would be an outbreak and panic has now set in.

The Cherrybrook Catholic school recorded its first case of COVID-19 on Saturday, and its 20th on Thursday.

It was among 12 new infections recorded in NSW, along with one death — the state’s first in 12 days.

A mother of one Tangara student said some pupils — including her daughter — “didn’t seem surprised” that an outbreak had occurred at the school after the cluster was linked to a religious camp known as ­Eremeran.

“She felt (the school) could have been stricter on their pro­cedures (and) people were starting to pan­ic,” the mother, who asked not to be named, said.

The student’s father said he hoped the cluster would stop growing, adding that there was “a sense of distress but the school is doing what they can”.

Both parents of the student, who tested negative to the virus, said they had not been told to quarantine with their daughter after they received an email from the school about midnight on Saturday to inform them of the first case.

Another parent, who spoke to 2GB, claimed the government’s health advice had been widely ­ignored by staff and students — including students being forced to attend mass.

Tangara is one of several schools across Sydney that have been shut down due to outbreaks of COVID-19.

On Wednesday, another confirmed case was linked with Our Lady of Mercy College in Parramatta. The school has been shut down for two weeks. Parramatta Public School was also closed on Wednesday after a student contracted the coronavirus.

The students at Tangara contracted the disease at an Opus Dei Catholic facility called Eremeran Hills Study Centre. It too has been closed.

One staff member at Ere­meran was quarantining at the study centre when The Australian visited on Thursday.

NSW Health also confirmed that a woman had died from a COVID-19 infection linked to the Our Lady of Lebanon cluster.

In a tribute to the Sydney woman — Jamilie Joseph, 80, — a family friend, Fadia Abboud, said she was “very well known and respected in our community” and “you could always find her at Our Lady of Lebanon”.

“Had she not been a loving wife and mother, she would have been a mayor — she was a smart woman who knew how to organise things,” Ms Abboud posted on Facebook.

It was the first COVID-­related death recorded in NSW in nearly two weeks, after an 83-year-old man died on August 1.

Ms Joseph’s death is the 53rd COVID-19 fatality in NSW.

Worryingly, three of the 12 new cases ­diagnosed across the state up to 8pm on Wednesday had no known source. Five were returned travellers in hotel quarantine, and four were locally ­acquired from a known source.

Case numbers have increased over the past few weeks, with 18 infections announced on Tuesday and a total of 135 active cases.

On Thursday, NSW residents were told that masks would soon be enforced if more people did not start wearing them.