A third Perth school has recorded a case of COVID-19 just three days into the school year, with hundreds of students and dozens of staff ordered into 14 days of quarantine.
A spokesman for WA Health confirmed late on Wednesday there had been a case detected at Corpus Christi College in Bateman. It is not yet clear whether it was a student or staff member.
A post by the college on social media showed the school held a whole-of-college assembly yesterday, with students and staff from kindergarten to year 12 gathering in the one place.
Parents at the college were later told that all Year 11 students who attended school on Monday or Tuesday would be required to get tested and self-isolate for 14 days.
Staff who were at a Year 11 assembly on Tuesday and a small number of additional teachers have also been classed as close contacts.
High school students in other years in Pallotti house, one of eight house groups at the school, who attended the whole-of-college assembly would be required to get tested and isolate until receiving a negative result.
It comes after 185 Year 12 students at Harrisdale Senior High School, in Perth's south east, were forced to self-quarantine for 14 days after a student tested positive for COVID-19.
Winterfold records second COVID case
Winterfold Primary School, in Perth's south east, was closed on Wednesday and the majority of its staff were forced into quarantine after a teacher tested positive — one of 17 new local cases reported in the state overnight.
A second staff member was confirmed to have tested positive in the late afternoon, with an additional group of Year Four students required to isolate.
Education Minister Sue Ellery told ABC Radio Perth a notice went out to parents advising them of the second case.
"It's only the close contacts of a positive case who need to quarantine for the 14 days. Members of the close contact's household are not required to isolate," she said.
"The caveat to that is where there is a parent who is caring for a close contact, say for example a young child. That parent will need to complete self-isolation, along with the child, but not everyone else in the household needs to."
Ms Ellery said the first teacher to test positive at Winterfold had attended a staff development day on Friday and their Year 3/4 classroom on Monday during their infectious period.
"In line with our commitment to maximise face-to-face learning, the school will reopen tomorrow for the rest of the students," Ms Ellery said.
"There will be replacement staff for the next 14 days.
"They will be different staff and teachers that the students are used to but normal face-to-face learning will resume."
Longer quarantine to continue
WA Premier Mark McGowan said 15 of the 17 new local cases of COVID-19 had been linked to current outbreaks, while the source of the other two remains unclear.
The Premier was asked about the developing schools situation on Nine Radio later in the afternoon and doubled down on his commitment to stick to 14 days of isolation for close contacts for now.
Mr McGowan said the new isolation period of seven days would not kick in until there were higher case loads in the community.
He said WA was faring better than other states in terms of keeping schools open.
"Our situation is significantly better than the eastern states," he said.
"But if you go to seven days quarantine that will mean a faster spread of the virus.
"And that will mean more people become sick, whilst we don't have children having the opportunity, particularly in primary school, to have had the vaccine."
Not enough teachers to backfill: union
State School Teachers' Union of WA president Pat Byrne said the state government had spruiked the importance of keeping schools open, but had not implemented protocols to match the messaging.
"The protocols that are in place are protocols that were established early on in the pandemic, and they are protocols that dealt with widespread shutdowns," she said.
"We're moving away from that, but we've actually still got an existing set of protocols ... I think it is quite out of kilter with the messaging, particularly in the context of the Omicron variant."
She said there are not enough teachers to support the existing arrangements.
"If the government is definite about wanting schools to remain open, you cannot sustain 55 teachers out of a school, that's not going to work,' she said.
"Now, we have potentially another issue at Harrisdale.
"There are not enough teachers available to backfill that situation. There never will be."
Ms Byrne said rapid antigen tests needed to be made readily available to schools.
"It's made it absolutely even more imperative that schools have access to those tests as quickly as possible," she said.
"All of those issues around supply, around how they're used, around how the results are reported, they all have to be resolved very, very quickly."
Closure comes despite promise to keep schools open
The school's closure comes amid the Omicron strain's continued spread in WA with several mystery cases reported in the daily COVID tally in recent days.
The WA Council of State School Organisations said it was disappointing a school had been required to close so quickly after students returned on Monday, but described it as a reality of the pandemic.
"Families would be absolutely disappointed that so early in the term we have a school closed down," president Pania Turner told ABC Radio Perth.
"But it tells us that the planning in place was triggered and that had been well thought out, so that is good."
Last week, Education Minister Sue Ellery said the government was committed to keeping schools open as much as possible, unveiling new rules which would come into force once case numbers increased in WA.
Under those rules, asymptomatic teachers who are close contacts of positive cases but have tested negative for COVID-19 will be allowed to continue working and attending school even while serving their isolation period.
Confusion over immediate school shutdown
The Principals Federation of WA president Bevan Ripp said the swift school closure had created uncertainty.
"When the minister comes out on Monday and says schools will be the first to open and the last to close, and then as soon as we get one case like this, bang it's closed, it casts some doubt on the veracity of what she is saying," he told ABC Radio Perth.
"The thought from government leading into the start of the school year was about the possibility of the partial closure of schools.
"It does not seem to have happened in this case."
Mr Ripp also questioned the 14-day isolation period still being used for close contacts in WA.
"They have talked about reducing that period of isolation once case numbers get up to a certain level," he said.
"Why would you reduce that time when we have got large numbers, but when we have got small numbers of community spread, we have the 14-day period," he said.
"I think there needs to be a decision made around reducing that period of isolation."
Minister defends closure
Ms Ellery defended the decision to close Winterfold Primary School.
"You will recall last week when I was asked about school returning this week I said...in the event of a positive case the Chief Health Officer would consider the particular circumstances," she said.
"The particular circumstances here include that the positive case attended a whole school staff professional development day and then the room 11 class on Monday.
"Whole school staff days don't happen every day and they don't happen every week."
Ms Ellery said the Education Department had planned to deal with absenteeism.
"Not only were we ready to fill vacancies for day one but we were ready to fill vacancies created by absenteeism whenever that occurred.
"We have dealt with the situation at Winterfold Primary School according to the plans and we will replace those staff ready for school tomorrow."
Schools 'unprepared': Opposition
Shadow Treasurer Steve Thomas said the school closure showed the WA Government was unprepared for the inevitable outbreak of COVID.
"This should've been an expected outcome," Mr Thomas said.
He called on the Premier to reveal more detail around what constituted a high caseload, which would trigger the introduction of new protocols around close contacts and isolation.
The rules will have a huge impact on businesses' staffing levels and their ability to continue operating through an outbreak.
The opposition has also called on the government to reopen the state by March 5.
"Mark McGowan needs to tell everybody what the threshold is for high cases is and he needs to link that then to the opening date for the state," he said.
"There's enough information out there for the government to determine the parameters by which it opens.
"If there are high caseloads they open at a certain date, if the caseloads come up more slowly that date will be shifted.
"But the link between those two is the bit of information that business desperately needs."
