More schools close after teacher at a Truganina school tests positive to COVID-19

Almost 2500 students and teachers from Al-Taqwa College, a school in Truganina, have been plunged into isolation after a teacher tested positive to COVID-19, and two other schools have closed as precautionary measure.

A caller alerted 3AW Drive to the Al-Taqwa case on Wednesday afternoon.

The case, a teacher from Hobsons Bay, may have been infectious while at the school last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

The school has been declared a Tier 1 exposure site and will be closed for 14 days.

Another school, Ilim College, in Melbourne’s north, last night announced it will close its three campuses from Thursday.

In a Facebook post, the school said the closure is a “precautionary measure” and there have been no positive COVID results in the school community.

The Age reports Australian International Academy has also sent a message to parents informing them all campuses will be closed as a precautionary measure after the school participated in a sports competition with another unnamed school.

Dean of the School of Health Sciences at Swinburne University, Professor Bruce Thompson, says “we’re going to be sitting on the edge of our seats to find out exactly what’s happened here”.

“We only need to look at Trinity Grammar … where obviously a teacher walked in, a bunch of students contracted it, they spread the love to their own families and it just took off,” he told Ross and Russel.

Press PLAY below to hear a health expert’s analysis on the risk the new case poses

A supermarket — Coles in Yarraville — has been declared a Tier 2 exposure site from 4:30pm to 5:30pm on Thursday, July 29.

SEE THE LIST OF EXPOSURE SITES HERE.