Sydney’s north has become the centre of the state’s coronavirus outbreak after a staff member at an aged care facility became the 26th case of COVID-19.

Updated
March 06, 2020 12:15:21
Sydney’s north has become the centre of the state’s coronavirus outbreak after a staff member at the aged care facility where a woman died this week became the 26th case of COVID-19.
Key points:

• Authorities have told staff and students at the school to self-isolate this weekend
• The NSW Health Minister said the decision to close the school was not taken lightly
• Sixty people have been diagnosed with coronavirus in Australia

The latest person to contract COVID-19 was a staff member at the Dorothy Henderson Lodge in Sydneys north.
The person is the second staff member at the aged care facility to be infected with coronavirus.
Three residents at the lodge have also been infected, and one of them, a 95-year-old woman, died earlier this week.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said: “I have full confidence that our health system is doing everything we can to reduce the spread of this virus, and we ask everybody to stay calm.”
A north Sydney school is closed today after a 16-year-old student, from Epping Boys High School, was diagnosed with coronavirus
Staff and students at the school have been advised to self-isolate this weekend.
A statement from the school read: “To provide time for NSW Health to conduct their contact tracing process the school will be non-operational Friday 6 March, 2020.”
It is the first time a case of COVID-19 has been found inside a NSW school.
“I want to stress that the decision to close down Epping Boys High School was a precautionary one,” Ms Berejiklian said.
“It’s given all of us [and] the experts a breather to assess the situation over the weekend to make a decision on Monday.”
The State Government said the decision was not taken lightly, but urged the public and school community to remain calm.
“We have closed the school because it was the safest option, and have asked all students and staff to isolate themselves over the weekend,” said NSW Education Minister Sarah Mitchell.
Deputy secretary of education Murat Dizdar said investigations into how the boy contracted the virus were continuing.
“We’re asking that students and teachers isolate over the weekend as we gather more information with further advice that we’ll provide to the school community,” he said.
The NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard compared efforts to track down those who may have been infected to a “police investigation”.
“We want to do what we can for containment but it’s getting much harder,” he said.
He said closing down the school was “a sensible outcome”.
“We’re lucky it’s so close to the weekend,” he said.
“A good decision has been taken, and some kids will be quite happy they’ve got the day off.”
About 1,200 students are enrolled at Epping Boys High School.
What the experts are saying about coronavirus:
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First posted
March 06, 2020 06:45:50
Contact Emma Elsworthy