Tiny dancers will miss out on performing in a dance concert on Sunday after one tested positive to COVID-19, The Sydney Morning Herald reports.
The children were deemed close contacts of the girl who tested positive on Wednesday after they rehearsed in the same dance studio last Saturday. The 11 girls have so far tested negative but are required to isolate for 14 days.
One of the parents, Zoe Vayanos, said her nine-year-old daughter, Isabella, was devastated she would miss her dance concert.
“…our kids are getting the raw end of the stick on this one. The mental health ramifications aren’t being weighed up against the possible risk of viral transmission,” Zoe told the SMH.
Another parent, Andria Kafkakis, said her daughter Ava, 10, “broke down” when she told her the concert wasn’t going on.
“She said ‘my heart is dead.’ It has cost her a lot. She doesn’t even get to say goodbye to her friends at school and finish the school year,” Andria told the media outlet.
Currently, children exposed to a positive case at school have been treated as casual contacts and allowed to return to school a day after receiving a negative test result.
A spokesperson for NSW Health told the newspaper this exemption is to provide “an option for close contact children (who are exposed at school) to not miss out on further face-to-face learning.”
“Outside of school, children must remain in isolation for the duration of their self-isolation period,” the spokesperson said.
Source: The Sydney Morning Herald.
