Southern Cross University has announced they have temporarily closed their doors of the Lismore campus owing to a staff member testing positive for COVID-19.
Officials at the university say they will be closed until Tuesday 5 October to allow deep cleaning and to assist NSW Health with contact tracing.
It is believed the staff member was unknowingly exposed off-campus last Friday to another person associated with the current Kyogle cluster. After attending work at the university on Monday and Tuesday, our colleague began to feel ill, sought a COVID-19 test and is now resting at home.
SCU has identified nine staff who have had some form of contact in relation to the staff member’s movements on campus Monday and Tuesday. All have been notified and are self-isolating and getting tested.
The Lismore campus has only just emerged out of the recent lockdown but was still only partially operating this week.
The University has been operating in a study/work from home mode since July as a precaution.
Recent stories, information and updates regarding COVID-19
New data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics Life shows life expectancy in Australia has decreased slightly for the second year in a row. An international team of researchers has found more evidence that COVID-19 came from animals in a Wuhan food market. The lab-leak theory that Covid-19 came from the Wuhan Institute of Virology – instead of a nearby wet market – was thrashed about in public recently, with the US Senate Homeland Security Committee holding a hearing into Covid-19. Eighteen schools in the Northern Rivers division of Richmond have received $25,000 each as part of the federal government’s School Upgrade Fund, Labor Member for Richmond Justine Elliot said last week. COVID-19 reversed earlier trends toward longer life expectancies. During the pandemic, life expectancies globally dropped by 1.6 years according to a new study published in the Lancet medical journal. Let’s not forget that Covid-19 is still a big issue in our community with 31,935 cases reported across Australia in the last week – an average of 4,562 cases per day. The Global Carbon Budget is about to be refreshed, giving the world a critical insight into how efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are (or are not) progressing. Masks will no longer be mandatory on public transport from tomorrow, Wednesday 21 September. SW Police are urging festival-goers at this weekend’s music festival to celebrate in a safe and responsible manner, whilst also being aware of COVID-Safety measures. The Northern NSW Local Health District reports that to 4pm yesterday, Sunday May 22, there were 40 COVID-19 positive patients in hospital in Northern NSW, with one of these in ICU.
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