Elite $15,600-a-year Catholic boys’ school Waverley College is closed after student tests positive for coronavirus
- A Year 7 student tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday, forcing it to close
- Parents were asked to collect their children as the buildings are deep cleaned
- People who came into contact with the boy have been told to self-isolate
- Here’s how to help people impacted by Covid-19
A Year 7 student has tested positive for coronavirus at a Catholic boys’ school in Sydney, forcing it to close.
Waverley College in Sydney’s eastern suburbs asked parents to collect their children on Tuesday morning.
Parents are charged up to $15,600 to send their children to the elite school each year.
A school spokeswoman said students who are not collected will be sent home on private buses, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.
‘We wish to advise you that Waverley College has been informed by NSW Health that a student on the Senior Campus has tested positive for COVID-19,’ the school wrote in a message to parents.
‘We understand that the student has not been in contact with any boy from the Junior School.
‘As a precaution we are sending all senior students home effective immediately. Junior students should remain on the Junior campus, unless they are a sibling of a senior student.’
The junior school has students in Year 5 and 6, and the senior school has students from Year 7 to 12.
The spokeswoman told the publication the school had a plan in the event of an infection.
People who came into contact with the boy have been told to self-isolate.
The buildings will be shut while they are deep cleaned.
The positive test comes the day after schools reopened across the state amid easing COVID-19 restrictions.
Students of Waverley College weren’t obliged to return to school on a full-time, but Catholic Schools NSW previously said it aimed to have all 250,000 students back by the end of May.
State premier Gladys Berejiklian said earlier this month that a return to full-time face-to-face learning is safe, but admitted there could be a spike in cases as a result.
She also said it would be ‘common’ for some schools to ‘shut down temporarily’ if a student tests positive.
Sydney’s eastern suburbs was a coronavirus hot spot earlier this year with NSW Health creating a series of pop-up clinics to curb the infection rate.
A drive-through testing centre and a walk-in clinic were set up opposite Bondi Beach.
Last week, a Year 12 at St Ignatius’ College Riverview, on the city’s Lower North Shore, tested positive to the virus.
The all boys school was shut on Thursday for a deep clean.