Students, families and staff of Ballarat Clarendon College have been released early from their 48 hour quarantine period, imposed after a family member of students in years 10 and 12 tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday.
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Grampians Public Health Unit clinical director Associate Professor Rosemary Aldrich issued the 'stop and stay' order on Friday to allow contact tracers to get ahead of any potential spread of the virus, but was able to revoke it at 3pm on Saturday after being satisfied there was no risk at the school.
"The Grampians Public Health Unit now has the information we need to assure members of the Ballarat Clarendon College school community that they have not been exposed to COVID-19 in relation to that person," she wrote in a letter which the school sent to all families.
"This means that the request to stop and stay ends immediately. Members of the school community can now revert to following the state-wide restrictions currently in place for all Victorians."
Associate Professor Aldrich thanked the school community for complying with the order.
"The Grampians Public Health Unit extends sincere thanks to everyone for acting so swiftly to ensure the safety of our community. By stopping and staying at home you afforded the contact tracing team time to test and trace known contacts.
"We know that the requirement caused distress and inconvenience and we are sorry that had to happen."
Ballarat Clarendon College principal David Shepherd also thanked Dr Aldrich and the school community for their actions.
"I know that everyone in our community will be relieved for this Clarendon family and thankful that the information has been communicated rapidly," he said.
"On behalf of all of us I want to thank Dr Aldrich and everyone at Grampians Public Health Unit for their professionalism, their clear communication, the speed and efficiency of their work and for the care and compssion they demonstrated for all involved."
The stay at home order had impacted 1720 students, their families, plus staff and their families.
Earlier in the day, Victoria's COVID commander Jeroen Weimar had praised schools for being proactive in regard to being potential exposure sites.
Bacchus Marsh Grammar has had six confirmed cases including five teachers and one student with all staff across two campuses and 2300 students at the Maddingly campus considered primary close contacts and ordered to isolate for 14 days.
"A big focus of activity to the west is Bacchus Marsh Grammar, where we've seen a number of staff and a student test positive," Mr Weimar said.
"We're going really well, testing 371 staff, and the results so far have been eight out of 10 of their results are coming back negative. That's an encouraging sign and we're now moving into the student body, we'll try to triage the student body with those who had exposure to three staff.
"When the virus jumps to another generation of people, a new number of secondary close contacts emerge and exposure sites.
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"I know there's a very active set of school communities who are becoming aware of potential secondary contacts at other schools, and we're following through on those today."
Professor Sutton said Ballarat Clarendon College had not been designated an exposure sites, but the department was aware of potential secondary contacts from Bacchus Marsh Grammar.
It takes to 43 the state's total number of virus cases for the current outbreak as all of Victoria remains in a five-day lockdown.
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