There were six new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 in Victoria on the day when the state recorded its first day of zero cases.
Among the cases is a mystery case of a school teacher, a woman in her 20s in the Hobsons Bay local government area who works at Al-Taqwa College in Truganina, who taught while infected as well as another two mystery cases.
The teacher is believed to have been infectious for three days last week, and the school where she taught has been listed as a Tier 1 exposure site and will be locked down for 14 days as the 300 staff members and 2,100 students get tested and isolate. The same college was at the centre of one of Victoria’s largest outbreaks during the second wave of the virus in 2020.
School spokesman Terry Barnes told the ABC that “Al-Taqwa College has done everything in its power and more to comply with government instructions and directions since this pandemic started”.
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Ilim College’s campuses in Dallas, Glenroy and Doveton, Islamic College of Melbourne in Tarneit and the Australian International Academy of Education’s campuses in North Coburg, Coburg and Caroline Springs have also been locked down for precautionary reasons despite not having recorded any infections.
“This is a precautionary measure as our students engaged in sporting activities with other schools,” a letter to parents from the Australian International Academy in Coburg said.
Yarraville Coles has been listed as a Tier 2 site.
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Another three cases are known cases which were isolating during their infectious period.
The new cases were detected from the 27,279 test results which were processed on Wednesday.
