Two schools in Sydney's east closed after students test positive for Covid-19

Two schools located just 2km apart in Sydney’s eastern suburbs have closed after a student at each tested positive for coronavirus.

The news comes one day after all students across the state returned to the classroom full-time.

Waverley College sent home the 1,100 students from its senior campus on Tuesday morning, after being notified by the parents of a year 7 boy that he had tested positive for the virus.

Parents were told to come and collect their children just before 10am on Tuesday morning. The school organised private buses for those whose parents were unable to pick them up, deputy principal Patrick Brennan told reporters, and alerted staff and students who were in direct contact with the infected pupil.

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Down the road, Moriah College evacuated its campus a few hours later after New South Wales Health notified the school that one of its students had also tested positive for Covid-19.

While public schools across the state officially reopened yesterday, Moriah and Waverley, both independent colleges, resumed face-to-face teaching last week.

Moriah has confirmed the infected student was at school last Thursday 21 May.

Both schools were closed for campus cleaning and contact tracing to take place.

Waverley College and Moriah College are not the first schools in NSW forced to close. Epping Boys high school, Normanhurst West public school, Warragamba public school, St Marys senior high school and St Ignatius college Riverview, have all had to shut their doors temporarily after students and staff tested positive for coronavirus.

Originally, NSW students were not supposed to return to the classroom full-time until late July. But the premier, Gladys Berejiklian, brought the date forward last week due to declining transmission rates across the state.

Berejiklian said at the time the “health advice is very clear – a return to full-time face-to-face teaching is safe”, but that it would be common to see schools close due to outbreaks.

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The education minister, Sarah Mitchell, warned after Waverley College closed on Tuesday morning that school shutdowns were “something that we are going to have to live with”.

“We are living through a pandemic and there will be occasions from time to time that we do have a positive case that effects a school community,” Mitchell told reporters.

“On any given day, one in five people in NSW are associated with a school community, whether they are a student, a parent or a teacher.”

It is unclear whether other schools in Waverley will need to reevaluate face-to-face teaching in light of the nearby outbreaks.

A spokeswoman for St Catherine’s College said it hadn’t prompted them to reconsider staying open, but that it had put the school on “alert”.

“We’ve revisited our processes that we have put in place before should we have to close the school,” the spokeswoman said.

Meanwhile, spokespersons for Reddam House school, St Clare’s College and Sydney Catholic schools – which oversees St Charles’ Catholic primary school – said the confirmed cases in Waverley had not prompted them to consider closing.