Family link to 100 school infections

An outbreak that resulted from a family gathering has been linked to a cluster of over 100 cases at Victoria’s largest Islamic school.

Al-Taqwa College in the Melbourne suburb of Truganina. Picture: Kylie Else

A COVID-19 outbreak that resulted from a family gathering has been linked to a cluster of more than 100 cases at Victoria’s largest Islamic school, the state’s health department has confirmed.

The cluster at Al-Taqwa College in the western Melbourne suburb of Truganina grew to 102 cases on Wednesday — nine days after the first case was made public and 11 days after the department says it was first notified.

It is Victoria’s largest current cluster, and the second-largest in the state after the 111-case outbreak at western suburbs abattoir Cedar Meats.

Asked whether the Department of Health and Human Ser­vices had any knowledge of where the Al-Taqwa cluster had originated, and how the case numbers had been able to increase so rapidly, a DHHS spokesman said the outbreak was “linked to a family gathering outbreak in the same local government area”.

A family outbreak in Truganina reached 17 cases on Tuesday, with no further cases notified. That outbreak became public when DHHS confirmed a Truganina family cluster of five cases on June 29, the same day it revealed the first case at Al-Taqwa.

“The first positive case was a teacher at the school — notified to the department on 27 June — (who) was believed to have worked for two days while infectious. The school closed for term holidays on 26 June,” the DHHS spokesman told The Australian on Wednesday. “The outbreak squad visited the school on the 29th June.

“On the 30th June after receiving further positive case notifi­cations, all students and staff were instructed to seek testing and go into quarantine.”

 

On Tuesday June 30, the department confirmed three people, all teachers, had tested positive; by the following day, eight teachers had been found to have the virus.

At least one close contact became part of the cluster by Thursday July 2, when the cluster reached 15.

“Further investigation led to all staff and students being considered close contacts on the 2nd July,” the DHHS spokesman said.

Students were among a total of 23 cases by the Friday, 33 by Saturday, 59 by Sunday, 77 by Monday, 90 by Tuesday and 102 by ­Wednesday.

Of the 12 extra cases attributed to the cluster on Wednesday, seven were new cases and the other five were previously notified cases subsequently linked to the outbreak.

The DHHS spokesman said there were approximately 2150 students and 320 staff at the school, “with the majority of the early cases reported in teachers who had responsibilities across multiple grades”.

He said DHHS and the Education Department were working closely with the school on a “reopening plan”.

DHHS is yet to respond to a request for a breakdown of the number of teachers, students and Year 11 and 12 students who have tested positive.

Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton on Tuesday mentioned “older kids” as being among the positive cases at Al-Taqwa.

Asked whether COVID-19 transmission in older students at Al-Taqwa had given the government cause for thought on having Year 11 and 12 students back at school from Monday, Premier Daniel Andrews said: “No, because the Chief Health Officer has turned his mind directly to that issue. Will Year 11 and 12 look a ­little bit different than it might otherwise have in terms of the way schools operate?

“Yes, I think it will be.

“There’ll be even more vigilance to make sure students are keeping their distance, that we’re all being as careful as possible … but I think the judgment of the Chief Health Officer is that given the age and likelihood of compliance with basic rules, that is a much lower risk and is a manageable and an acceptable risk.

“I think we all understand that Years 11 and 12 … are in a unique place. It’s really important that we get them back on Monday.”