UPDATE RE: NOVEL CORONAVIRUS
Dear parents,
At 4:30pm today the Queensland Department of Education issued revised instructions for schools regarding novel coronavirus. The updated advice which concerns St Paul’s School is:
“Returned travellers who have visited China cannot attend school, childcare or TAFE for 14 days after leaving China including Hong Kong.”
Until this point, only travellers who had visited Hubei Province of China need to self-isolate for 14 days after leaving Hubei Province. As you are aware, St Paul’s has a large number of students attending from China and Hong Kong.
Upon receiving this advice, St Paul’s advised all students from China and Hong Kong to not attend St Paul’s School until at least the end of next week (7 February). This includes one St Paul’s teacher who has recently returned from China.
I appreciate that for many of you this will be frustrating news given all children attended school today, however, we were acting upon the advice of the Queensland Government which had explicitly advised that students returning to school from regions in China other than Hubei province ‘should not be excluded’ from attending school.
We will continue to follow the advice of the Queensland Government regarding this issue and ask for your understanding as we seek to support all our families, both foreign and domestic.
I ask you to join me in praying for the safety of our students from China and Hong Kong, as well as for those across China who are affected by this virus.
If you would like to read the full statement from the Queensland Department of Education, you can do so here: https://qed.qld.gov.au/about-us/news-and-media/novel-coronavirus
Yours sincerely,
Paul Browning
Headmaster
