SIC Riverview High School Student Tests Positive to COVID19

St Ignatius College Riverview has confirmed a student located on their secondary campus has tested positive for COVID19.

The news broke on Twitter around 1 pm today that the School had informed staff a student had tested positive.  The only students physically at the School at the time of the announcement were Years 12 and 7 and years 5 and 6 on the Regis Campus. Students in years 8 to 10 were undertaking online classes.

Boarders returned to the School on 11th May 2020 and since that time members of the community have not been permitted access to the school grounds.  Before that, community members were allowed to walk through the grounds.

Communication to Parents

AT 1.50 pm the following information was sent to parents:

“Dear Member of the College Community,

We wish to advise you that the Senior Campus of Saint Ignatius’ College has been informed by NSW Health that a student has tested positive for COVID-19.

Staff and students who are identified as Close Contacts will be contacted and advised they should self-isolate for the required period of time.

The safety and wellbeing of staff and students is our key priority at all times, as such we will continue to work closely with NSW Health to ensure that all necessary health advice is adhered to.

We ask that as a matter of priority that you contact your son to coordinate transport arrangements home as soon as possible. Entry to the College will be via the bottom gate and boys will be collected from Second Field. Boys who need to catch the bus will be supervised until the normal bus run occurs.

A close assessment of the circumstances reveals that the student concerned is not in boarding, nor has had any contact with the Regis Campus. The Boarding Houses will remain open.

The school will be non-operational to the onsite attendance of staff and students while the school conducts contact tracing and is cleaned.  We anticipate this will be for no more than 48 hours.

We will commence the virtual timetable from tomorrow.”

Lane Cove Local Member the Hon Anthony Roberts is a former St Ignatius College student and he told ITC, “The College should be congratulated on the work they have undertaken so far to ensure the safety of the staff, students and wider community members. They have worked with the NSW Government to put in place mechanisms to protect staff and students”.

On Tuesday 19th May 2020 the NSW Premier after announcing that schools will return on Monday 25th May 2020 warned that positive cases will happen in schools.  The Premier stated:

“It will be common for schools to be shut down temporarily, for a specific area to be on high alert, for a particular school to take extra measures if there’s a community breakout in that community with cases, we just have to accept that.”

Source of Infection

NSW Health Media has advised ITC that they will not release any information on the source of the infection (i.e. locally acquired or acquired overseas) or if the student lives locally until the Premier’s daily press conference tomorrow morning.

Lane Cove Council and Public Health Orders

It’s ironic that a positive test should occur in the Lane Cove Council area in the same week as Lane Cove Council moved a motion to write to the Prime Minister and the Public Health Officers to ask that power be delegated to them to determine the number of diners who can dine in Lane Cove cafes and restaurants.  We all want to support local businesses, but is Lane Cove Council in a position to make public health order decisions?  At today’s media briefing the Premier particularly stated that her public health advice was that the risk of spreading COVID19 was higher in small indoor spaces and that until she was advised otherwise by her public health officials, she would not be changing the rules about business operations.

Traffic Gridlock

Getting into and out of Riverview is always tricky around school drop off and pick up time, but today there was gridlock.

Our cover photo is from the SIC Riverview Twitter Account