A Lyneham High student has been diagnosed with coronavirus and might have been contagious while at the school last week, the ACT government says.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Late Sunday, ACT Chief Health Officer Kerryn Coleman said the student was the 11th person to have tested positive for coronavirus in the ACT in the past 24 hours, taking the territory's total to 20.
This is more than double the number reported on Saturday - nine.
"This student attended school last week on Tuesday while they may have been infectious. As a precationary approach, we have advised the Education Directorate that we would like them to shut Lyneham High School down for tomorrow, only Monday, so we can come in and get our contact tracing completed, as well as cleaning the school," she said.
READ MORE:
- ACT schools to effectively close and go to online learning
- ACT to shutdown non-essential services within 48 hours
- Canberra couple makes tough call to postpone wedding
- Shopping issues? Spare a thought for a family of 11
- Acts of kindness show best of Canberra region
- ACT healthcare workers provide 'control group'
ACT Education Minister Yvette Berry said authorities would be "identifying and notifying any person who has been in recent contact with the affected person".
"Lyneham High School staff, students, parents and carers are not required to self-quarantine at home unless they have already been contacted directly by ACT Health. Anyone who is unwell should stay at home," she said.
"The Education Directorate is working with ACT Health to ensure the impacted members of the school community receive appropriate medical support."
Ms Berry also announced Canberra schools would move to "pupil free days" until school holidays, and undertake online teaching.
Earlier, while announcing 10 new cases, Dr Coleman said seven men and three women aged between 21 and 67 years have tested positive in the past 24 hours.
"ACT Health is currently undertaking thorough contact tracing of all positive test results, but can confirm that eight (8) cases are linked to overseas travel, one (1) case is a known close contact of a previously confirmed case and one (1) case follows interstate travel from Queensland," Dr Coleman said in a statement.
The government would upload relevant flight details to www.health.act.gov.au on Sunday afternoon, and encouraged people who had recently flown to Canberra to check.
ACT Health will now expand its testing criteria to bring it more in line with the NSW criteria.
"This will further strengthen our surveillance and enhance our ability to rapidly identify any community transmission early," she said.
"It also acknowledges the pockets of transmission in Australia."
People meeting three new categories will also now be tested in response to the increased availability of testing equipment "and reflecting the increased identification of cases in the ACT and nationally".
People with acute respiratory conditions or an unexplained fever would be tested if they were:
- in hospital
- in a high risk setting, such as an aged care facility, residential care facilities such as boarding schools, or if they had been on a cruise ship
- links to a setting where there had been an outbreak in Australia
She said those settings where outbreaks had occurred in Australia would be collated and posted to the ACT Health website for reference.
These settings would include cruise ship the Ruby Princess, which recently docked in Sydney and discharged about 2700 passengers, including some Canberrans.
Dr Coleman said there had been 2395 negative COVID-19 tests in the ACT as at midday Sunday.
"There are currently two COVID-19 patients being cared for in hospital in Canberra. The remainder of the current cases are isolating at home with the support of ACT Health," she said.
The two patients in hospital were in a stable condition.
She paid tribute to those people who were in self-isolation and their adherence to those requirements. People who had notified ACT Health they were in self-isolation were receiving SMS messages on a daily basis to check on their health and of those in their household.
"We're currently reviewing that to see if there any enhancements we can do to further support people in self-quarantine," she said.
She said the Weston Creek walk-in centre and the new drive-through testing facility in Exhibition Park were best equipped to deal with people who fit the testing criteria.
The ACT Health 24/7 hotline is available to provide advice on 1800 020 080.
- For information on COVID-19, please go to the ACT Health website or federal Health Department's website.
- You can also call the Coronavirus Health Information Line on 1800 020 080
- If you have serious symptoms, such as difficulty breathing, call Triple Zero (000)
We have removed our paywall from our stories about the coronavirus. This is a rapidly changing situation and we want to make sure our readers are as informed as possible. If you're looking to stay up to date on COVID-19, you can also sign up for our twice-daily digest here. If you would like to support our journalists you can subscribe here.
