UPDATED:
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
A WODONGA Catholic primary school will reopen on Friday after having shut early on Thursday after a COVID scare.
St Monica's closed around 1.30pm after a family were at a COVID exposure site in Melbourne, believed to be the Carlton-Geelong AFL match on Saturday at the MCG.
Sandhurst diocese education director Paul Desmond said parents of the students had received notification they were at a tier 1B site in the capital and had to isolate and be tested for coronavirus.
He spoke to St Monica's principal Jacqui Partington at 12.44pm and by 1.30pm it was decided to shutdown and a text message was sent to 380 families.
"The attitude here is that it's always about the safety of the children," Mr Desmond said.
"Many parents may have been inconvenienced by the call but that's acceptable when we're talking about keeping children safe."
However, just after 3pm parents received a text to say the two students involved had returned negative COVID tests and school was due to resume on Friday.
A line of cars up to 40 parents formed outside the school as parents arrived to collect their children.
Father Ranjeev Tyagi came to collect his two children.
He said he was naturally worried about the possibility of COVID.
A mother who came to collect a child from a daycare centre on the school grounds
"I was pretty shocked, we just got a phone call from the centre to say come and pick up your child," she said.
PREVIOUSLY:
Anyone who has attended St Monica's in the past week must isolate immediately after a family at the school attended a Tier 1 exposure site.
Students are not allowed to catch public transport home.
Parents have descended on Wodonga's St Monica's Primary School after the school was shut on health advice.
There is a line up of about 20 cars headed to the school's entrance.
An SMS was sent out to parents at 1.30pm telling them the school would be shutdown.
It's believed someone at the school was a close contact of a positive case.
Teachers are taking children's names from the parents and letting children out of the school one-by-one.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:
- Removalists under investigation by NSW Police
- 'Time is ticking' for Victorians still in NSW says Weimar
- Berejiklian expects COVID case number to rise tomorrow
- We can't assume there are no cases in community says MLHD
- Staff at Hay exposure site test negative to COVID-19
- Live updates on NSW and Victorian outbreaks, Jindera exposure
- Councillor 'horrified' to learn Border servo a COVID exposure site
- COVID infected removalists stopped in Jindera, Hay, Gundagai
MORE TO COME
We have removed our paywall from our stories which contain need-to-know information about coronavirus. If you would like to support our journalists you can subscribe here.
Victoria Ellis
Victoria Ellis grew up on the Border and loves reporting for her home community. She is a University of Wollongong Journalism graduate. In 2018 Victoria was awarded the Bruce Gordon Scholarship for Journalism and completed a 10 week internship with WIN News Illawarra. In 2019 she was awarded The Border Mail's Cameron Thompson Scholarship, where she completed a three week internship, before taking up ongoing employment in 2021.
Victoria Ellis grew up on the Border and loves reporting for her home community. She is a University of Wollongong Journalism graduate. In 2018 Victoria was awarded the Bruce Gordon Scholarship for Journalism and completed a 10 week internship with WIN News Illawarra. In 2019 she was awarded The Border Mail's Cameron Thompson Scholarship, where she completed a three week internship, before taking up ongoing employment in 2021.
Anthony Bunn
Digital journalists with The Border Mail.
Digital journalists with The Border Mail.
