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Epping Boys High School ordered to close after student tests positive for coronavirus

Epping Boys High School will be shut down on Friday after a year 11 student tested positive for coronavirus.

The 16-year-old boy was diagnosed with COVID-19 on Thursday evening and is believed to have caught the virus from a infected person already identified by health authorities.

The one-day closure will allow the school and health authorities to identify and contact anyone the boy has been in contact with while potentially infectious, and contain any spread.

He is the first child in NSW to be diagnosed with COVID-19.

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"Students at the school are advised to stay at home and self isolate over the weekend," the statement read. "Staff are also asked to stay at home and self-isolate. The school will provide a further update over the weekend about next steps."

The boy is the 25th confirmed coronavirus case in NSW. Two other cases were confirmed late on Thursday, as health authorities warn the virus cannot be contained and is spreading in the community.

Roughly 1200 students are enrolled at Epping Boys Public School north-west Sydney.

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard said the decision was made in very difficult circumstances.

"The pathology results came into NSW Health on Thursday night and the challenge for Health was then to work out whether we could track all the young man's contacts in the space of just a few hours," he said.

"The answer in the end was Health could not do that so on a precautionary basis, a decision was taken in consultation with the Education Minister to close the school on Friday, effectively giving NSW Health three days to trace the young man's contacts."

It was possible other students could have caught the virus "but I am hoping against hope that is not the case", Mr Hazzard said.

"I trust parents will appreciate the decision is made in the interests of their sons and friends who may have come in contact with the young man," he said.

"I am so apologetic to parents who will find this as an inconvenience if they need to work or have other obligations, but the world is in an extremely challenging time and unfortunately it has come to Epping Boys High," he said.

Secretary of Education Mark Scott said, "education has well prepared continuity plans and is contacting students, parents and the broader school community to provide advice and support."

Epping Boys High School is fewer than two kilometres away from Macquarie University's Banksia and Gumnut childcare centre that cares for 17 children who were tested for coronavirus on Thursday evening after they visited a nursing home where four residents and an assistant nurse were diagnosed with COVID-19.

The BaptistCare Dorothy Henderson aged care facility, the site of the small coronavirus outbreak and now in lock-down, is also located a couple of blocks from Epping Boys High School.

The other two newly-confirmed cases are a 94-year-old patient at the Dorothy Henderson Lodge and a Goulburn local who returned from Singapore on 28 February on QF02 and subsequently travelled to Darwin on 2 March on QF840.

The state's Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant said NSW Health was immediately establishing contact with all new cases and their families, as well as their close contacts and advising them to self-isolate for 14 days, monitor their health and be tested for COVID-19 should they become unwell.

"More information about the latest cases will be disclosed as soon as their contacts and movements are established," NSW Health said.

The virus has now stretched across Sydney, with a 30 year-old woman diagnosed at Northern Beaches Hospital, a man in his 50s diagnosed in Cronulla and a 27-year-old female trainee doctor at Liverpool Hospital all confirmed cases.

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"NSW Health is continuing to find and respond to cases as they are diagnosed to slow any spread of COVID-19 in the community."

"NSW has planned for a situation where there is community spread of COVID-19 in Australia through the development and deployment of whole-of-government and NSW Health Influenza Pandemic Plans which are available on the NSW Health Website," the statement read.

If you are unwell call ahead before visiting your GP or healthdirect for advice on 1800 022 222. GPs can arrange for COVID-19 testing, or if you are very unwell, you can also call ahead before attending your local emergency department for assessment, the ministry advised.

NSW Education Minister Sarah Mitchell on Thursday flagged the possibility of localised school closures if there was evidence the virus was spreading in certain pockets of Sydney.

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