About 50 grade five and six pupils and an unknown number of staff members from a Ballarat primary school are in quarantine after attending the Queen Victoria Market during a school camp last week.
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Late yesterday the Department of Health revealed a confirmed COVID-19 case had attended section two of the fruit and vegetable area in the market between 8.25am and 10.10am on February 11 when pupils from St Aloysius Catholic Primary School were also visiting.
With its listing as a tier one exposure site, anyone who visited the market at the same time must now have a COVID-19 test and isolate for 14 days.
There have been no cases confirmed in relation to the school.
In an email to parents, the school said they had been advised that siblings, housemates and family members were secondary contacts. Once a negative result is received, they can go about their business but only as long as they can stay isolated from the grade 5/6 student during the 14 day period.
Carers must isolate for 14 days if they cannot isolate themselves, putting many families in to the full 14-day isolation.
St Aloysius parents were advised of the exposure in an email from principal Michael Kennedy and Narelle Cox late Sunday afternoon, with more specific testing and quarantine advice sent after 9pm.
A surge in people requiring testing in Ballarat since the start of the Holiday Inn outbreak, which prompted the statewide five-day hard lockdown, had already prompted UFS chief executive Lynne McLennan to look at increasing testing capacity this week before being notified of the St Aloysius students.
"We have managed to get extra staff and will be open until 8pm to fit in the students and teachers who will all be tested," Ms McLennan said.
"If people are priority cases, if they get a message from public health or DHHS, we will fit them in on the day, also essential workers."
Members of the public who have symptoms and need to be tested can book an appointment at the UFS Respiratory Clinic online.
Ms McLennan said the clinic hours would be extended until 8pm for at least the next few days.
There was one new COVID-19 community transmission case confirmed yesterday, the mother of a three-year-old girl previously diagnosed with the virus who was already under investigation and isolating.
There was also one new case in hotel quarantine bringing the total number of active COVID-19 cases in Victoria to 21.
The Catholic Education Office released a statement on the St Aloysius exposure at 11.30am.
While on school camp in Melbourne last Thursday 11 February, year five and six students from a Catholic school in the Ballarat area visited a Tier 1 Exposure Site while a person with a confirmed case of COVID was on-site.
The DHHS has advised that all students and staff on the camp have been identified as primary close contacts, so are required to get tested immediately and quarantine for 14 days since the date of exposure. The Grampians public health unit have been alerted and are ensuring that there is adequate capacity for testing today.
Families and siblings must also isolate until a negative result is received by the student or staff member. Students must be isolated from other family members for the 14 days. If isolation is not possible, those carers must also quarantine for 14 days. Anyone with symptoms is encouraged to get tested and isolate until a negative result is received.
The school is continuing to keep the families of all affected students and staff well-informed in a timely manner. Affected families have been extremely supportive and responsive to advice.
There are no additional public health actions required by the school, but affected students and staff have been asked not to attend until they are cleared by the DHHS.
Prior to the camp, the school undertook rigorous COVID Safe risk mitigation planning.
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