Thirteen visiting students, two visiting staff members and 12 host families are still self-isolating in Shepparton as a precaution, after the Victorian Department of Education contacted GVGS on Thursday.
The Victorian Department of Health contacted the school on Thursday, advising the visiting students and teachers had been in “casual contact” with a person who had tested positive for COVID-19.
An email was sent to GVGS parents on Thursday night, and stated all passengers on Flight SQ237 — the same flight carrying the school’s Indonesian exchange students — were now classified as coronavirus disease casual contacts.
A casual contact is someone who has been face-to-face for less than 15 minutes with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19 or been in the same closed space for less than two hours, when that person was potentially infectious.
Being a casual contact means there may be a risk of becoming infected with novel coronavirus.
Casual contacts must monitor their health until 14 days after they were last exposed to the infectious person.
Also, casual contacts must watch for signs and symptoms including fever, cough, shortness of breath and other early symptoms, which can include chills, body aches, sore throat, headache, runny nose, muscle pain or diarrhoea.
In the meantime, the health department recommended following normal health procedures, including good hand hygiene and coughing etiquette.
Families seeking more information are welcome to contact the Victorian Department of Health on 1300 651 160.
More to come.
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