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Key posts
- Third Melbourne school closes as city braces for more COVID-19 exposure sites
- Worst not over amid fears virus is spreading beyond Sydney
- This morning’s headlines at a glance
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Third Melbourne school closes as city braces for more COVID-19 exposure sites
Three Melbourne schools have now shut their doors as Victoria braces for additional exposure sites linked to a teacher who recently tested positive to coronavirus.
A message sent out by Australian International Academy executive principal Gafiah Dickinson and campus head Michelle Shears told parents and guardians that all their campuses would be closed as a precautionary measure after the school participated in a sporting competition with another unnamed school.
Al-Taqwa College released a statement on Wednesday evening after one of its teachers tested positive to COVID-19.Credit:Joe Armao
“We are sorry to inform you that we are temporarily closing ALL AIA Campuses due to the recent COVID-19 CONFIRMED infections announced earlier this evening,” the message said.
“This is a precautionary measure as our students engaged in sporting activities with other schools.”
A teacher at Al-Taqwa College in Melbourne’s west tested positive to COVID-19 yesterday, forcing nearly 2500 students and teachers into isolation. The college is now listed as a tier-1 exposure site.
Victorian COVID-19 response commander Jeroen Weimar said a Hobsons Bay woman, who is in her 20s, may have been infectious while at the school on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday last week.
The woman also visited a Coles in Yarraville last Thursday. The supermarket has now been declared a tier-2 exposure site, meaning anyone who visited it during the specified timeframe needs to isolate until they test negative for COVID-19.
Yesterday evening, another Islamic school, Ilim College in the northern suburbs, said it would close its three campuses from today as a precautionary measure, with a further announcement to come pending advice from Victoria’s Health Department.
“We must reiterate that Ilim College has not had any positive COVID results from this outbreak,” the school said in a Facebook post.
More on this story here.
Worst not over amid fears virus is spreading beyond Sydney
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has abandoned the promised full-scale return of HSC students to classrooms as case numbers remain stubbornly high and fears mount that the virus had spread beyond metropolitan Sydney.
With 1000 contact tracers now working on stopping the spread of COVID-19 in NSW, authorities are becoming increasingly concerned about the quantity of virus fragments found in waste water around Newcastle, Lake Macquarie and southern Port Stephens. There have been no cases recorded recently in those areas.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian at Wednesday’s COVID-19 briefing.Credit:James Brickwood
Yesterday, Ms Berejiklian conceded her ambitious plan to get year 12 students back to face-to-face learning would need to take a different form than expected, making a “humble guess” that the worst of the outbreak was yet to hit.
She said it was unlikely there would be a uniform policy for schools across Greater Sydney, given areas like south-west and western Sydney had higher levels of transmission than others.
Read the full story here.
Indigenous leader welcomes $1.1b Closing the Gap funding
The country’s top Indigenous organisations have applauded the federal government’s $1.1 billion Closing the Gap implementation plan, but warn underfunding of programs and services remains the biggest challenge ahead.
The federal, state, and territory governments reached the historic new National Agreement on Closing the Gap with the Coalition of Peaks last July, aimed at reducing the inequality faced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Pat Turner alongside Prime Minister Scott Morrison as they announced the national agreement last July.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
The federal government will now hand down its first plan outlining how it will achieve progress on its commitments this morning.
“The Prime Minister is beginning to overturn some significant legacy issues, and some chronic underfunding of vital services for our peoples … not everything will be covered but this is the furthest attempt and I think they’ve done pretty well,” said Arrernte and Gurdanji woman Pat Turner, lead convenor of the Coalition of Peaks.
Read the full story here.
This morning’s headlines at a glance
Good morning and thanks for your company.
It’s Thursday, August 5. I’m Broede Carmody and I’ll be anchoring this morning’s live coverage.
Here’s everything you need to know before we get started.
- NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has abandoned a plan to return all HSC students to on-site learning due to stubbornly high case numbers and fears COVID-19 is spreading beyond Sydney. Virus particles have been detected in wastewater in the Newcastle region. Yesterday, we learned a 27-year-old man died with coronavirus – the youngest death of the outbreak so far. There were 233 new cases of COVID-19 reported in NSW yesterday. Of those, at least 63 were infectious in the community.
- Meanwhile Victorian authorities are on high alert after a teacher at a school in Melbourne’s west tested positive to coronavirus. All staff and students at the school have been asked to isolate for 14 days. The bombshell came just hours after the state reported zero daily cases of COVID-19 for the first time in weeks and a second school has closed as a precaution. Yesterday’s mystery case will be included in today’s official numbers.
- Queenslanders are facing their biggest coronavirus threat since last year. There were 16 new cases of coronavirus yesterday (plus one in Cairns we already knew about). It’s now unlikely the state’s lockdown will end this weekend. All eyes will be on today’s numbers to see whether there is community transmission beyond south-east Queensland.
- And a fly-in, fly-out worker has tested positive to COVID-19 in Perth. The man, in his 30s, returned a weak positive test before testing negative. The state government is confident the new case won’t lead to another lockdown.
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