US flight the focus for Victoria’s first coronavirus transmission

Investigations into Victoria’s first case of patient-to-patient coronavirus transmission will focus on a United Airlines flight that arrived in Australia in February.

Carey Grammar school in Melbourne, has closed for 24 hours. Picture: Stuart McEvoy

Investigations into Victoria’s first case of patient-to-patient coronavirus transmission will focus on a United Airlines flight that arrived in Australia in February carrying the GP father of a famous singer and the partner of a teacher at one of Melbourne’s most prestigious schools.

News at the weekend that Toorak doctor Chris Higgins, whose daughter is Missy Higgins, had contracted COVID-19 set off a chain-reaction of events that culminated on Tuesday with the closure of Carey Grammar in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs.

School principal Jonathan Walter confirmed that a staff member had tested positive, with health authorities revealing that the woman — a teacher at Carey’s middle and senior schools — had contracted the virus from a member of her household.

It is understood that the teacher’s partner, a man aged in his 50s, had spent time in the US, flying from San Francisco to Melbourne on United Airlines Flight UA60 on February 29 — the same flight as Dr Higgins. The man became unwell after arriving home and decided to get tested for the virus after seeing Dr Higgins’s case in the news at the weekend.

As the couple continue to recover in isolation at home, Mr Walter told parents on Tuesday that the school, which has more than 2300 students, would remain closed until Sunday “while we map any potential exposure to Carey community members”.

“The closure will include all scheduled activities and events for this week, including parent-teacher interviews, weekend activities for all students and staff and community events,” he wrote. “All upcoming interstate and overseas trips have been placed on hold.”

The state Health Department is contacting all staff, students and parents who have been identified as having close contact with the teacher. Close contact is defined as someone who has been face-to-face for at least 15 minutes or been in the same closed space for at least two hours.

The school will contact other members of the community thought to have had more fleeting contact.

The shutdown has devastated some of Carey’s sporting teams, including its elite rowing crews. In an email to the school’s rowing club, a senior coach called on crews to support each other through the challenge. “It is at times like this that we need to remember that there is no “I” in TEAM, and rowing is the ­ultimate TEAM SPORT! We need to stand together!”

As Premier Daniel Andrews warned that more school closures could be expected in a bid to stem the spread of COVID-19, Education Minister James Merlino said updated advice had been provided to all schools on how to limit the spread.

Chief health officer Brett Sutton said the first case of local transmission was a significant concern. He said it was unclear whether the two men on Flight UA60 had contracted the disease before or during the flight. “The flight will be part of the hypothesis for how ­people have picked it up,” he said, “but there are other possibilities.”