An infectious diseases expert has warned Queensland schools will see a rapid rise in children testing positive to COVID-19 now that students across the state have returned to classrooms.
The warning comes after students at St Aidan's Anglican Girls' School in Brisbane's west were notified of a positive COVID case in the senior schooling cohort on Tuesday.
In the last 24 hours, 534 children between the age of five and 17 have tested positive for the virus, up from 313 yesterday.
Of the children who had tested positive in the past day, 295 were aged between five and 11 and 239 were aged between 12 and 17.
Speaking at a COVID-19 update, Health Minister Yvette D'Ath said most of the cases were very mild.
"We don't envisage that this jump overnight is directly related to school yet because it's very, very early days but we'll continue to report them," Ms D'ath said.
Griffith University infectious diseases expert Nigel McMillan said other schools should prepare for an influx of case numbers as the school term progresses.
"I think we're going to start seeing cases really climb in school-aged children after five days, so the end of this week," Professor McMillan said.
"We'll just have to see as the data comes in, they certainly would expect there to be a peak of cases in the next two or three weeks."
Professor McMillan said other states such as Victoria saw 1,200 children infected in the past week, while a further 150 teachers tested positive.
"That gives you an idea of the sort of spread they're seeing down there," he said.
"So I expect to see the same thing happen in Queensland, but perhaps not to that degree."
Schools on stand-by to transition to online learning
As the cases increase, Professor McMillan said schools were operating on a "wait and see" approach, to decide whether or not a return to online learning was necessary.
"The clear plan is to not close down classrooms and schools, and to keep learning in-person as much as possible," he said.
"But if we get to that point where there's a large outbreak, I suppose that will be something that the Chief Health Officer and the education department might consider."
Independent Education Union spokesman Terry Burke said the first week back at school had been "pretty smooth" so far.
"Schools have done very well. From their perspective, where there have been some issues there's been good discussion that's occurred at the school level about how situations might be managed," Mr Burke said.
"After two-plus years of this, it's not like you've got to say to the school community, 'there is a challenge here' — everybody understands the challenge."
Mr Burke said there was a lot of apprehension leading up to the return of face-to-face learning, but that schools were doing well.
"I think people have settled into a routine, a slightly different routine than what they were used to but nevertheless, the routine is there," he said.
"I think everybody's keeping sort of a bit of a watch on what happens when there is an identified case within the school community and how that gets dealt with."
Mr Burke said many schools were operating on the basis of isolating children who test positive and continuing with in-person learning for the rest of the class.
He said schools were not offering online learning options as well as in-person learning.
"There's not an expectation in schools that there are multiple delivery modes," he said.
"The mode is face-to-face and if a student is unwell at home, then the school to a various extent will make work available to them, but it won't be a separate delivery mode."
The Chief Health Officer said there had been a substantial decline in the number of children infected In the last four weeks, and said he hoped there was some level of immunity created in children as they returned to school.
