Newcastle nurse Amber Walsh had her daughter tested for COVID-19 last Monday amid a blooming outbreak at The Junction Public School.
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Eleven-year-old Lilah had not been identified as a close contact and was asymptomatic after spending time with a positive case on the last two days of school.
Under directives from the NSW government and NSW Health, she should not have been tested.
But, eight days later, Ms Walsh, husband Ben Rainsford, son Sam and Lilah are in isolation and thankful they have not spread the virus to vulnerable family members, friends and patients.
"If we had treated Lilah as a casual contact, we would have gone about our business," she said.
"Ben would have met with people. Sam would have met with a lot of his friends.
"It could have been astronomical."
At last count, nine year five students at The Junction have tested positive.
Lilah had to wait four days, until Christmas eve, before her own infection was confirmed.
Uncovering the positive cases has been left to the school parents' bush telegraph of texts and Facebook chats rather than increasingly overwhelmed government contact tracers.
"We were fortunate in the sense that one of the parents messaged us as soon as they found out the results," Ms Walsh said.
"This is even before we knew the outbreak had happened.
"Her daughter had returned a positive test. That's why we went and got Lilah tested last Monday.
"It was all though parents whose kids developed symptoms on the Saturday and they went and got tested.
"Whatever phone numbers they had and Facebook things they could do, they reached out."
Ms Walsh did not hear from NSW Health, but the school sent an email on Wednesday identifying the students as casual contacts and telling them to monitor for symptoms.
The four family members had tests on Monday and Wednesday, all of which have been negative except for Lilah's. Ms Walsh, as a health worker, received her negative results on Tuesday and Thursday, but Lilah had to wait longer before her results came back.
Like an estimated 35,000 others across NSW, Ms Walsh's family spent Christmas isolated from their loved ones.
"We couldn't do anything. Usually we go see Ben's parents, who live out at Mulbring, and his dad's just recently come out of hospital from some major surgery, so even if she was a casual contact, he has a lot of medical history and cardiac conditions, so he said we'll do Christmas another day.
"My family's rather large as well, so we didn't get to see them, either. My dad has a few medical conditions, and we've got newborn babies.
"Everyone who can be vaccinated is vaccinated, but you just don't want to be spreading it."
Ms Walsh is relieved not to have brought the virus unwittingly to Lake Macquarie Private Hospital, where she is an anaesthetic nurse.
"Working in the area I work in, we deal with airways, we're close to all our patients, they're really vulnerable, even though we're wearing protective gear.
"If I went to work, which I was due to do all last week, that could have had diabolical results where it shut down an entire hospital."
Ms Walsh said the vaccines appeared to have protected herself, Ben and Sam from infection. Lilah, at 11, is not eligible for a vaccine until next month.
She developed mild symptoms on Wednesday, but Ms Walsh said it was impossible to isolate a child in the house.
"We haven't tried. We just went into isolation. It's too difficult, and for Lilah's mental health as well to be put aside like that it's more damaging.
"We've got a small 140-year-old house with one bathroom."
Ms Walsh said the family had tried to retain some Christmas spirit on the day.
"We tried to make it as fun as possible for the kids, even though they are older, but it was a little bit disheartening when you could hear everyone around us having family, friends, music, laughing.
"We're used to having such a busy, chaotic day spent with family. They tried to say they weren't disappointed, but you could tell they just weren't in the Christmas spirit.
"Sam got a new bike. He hasn't been able to take it out. He had to do laps in the backyard.
"We just ate and played some games, but it definitely wasn't the same."
The family are missing a usually active outdoor lifestyle which includes lots of bike riding and swimming at the beach.
"That's a killer at the moment, the weather being so spectacular outside and we're stuck inside," Ms Walsh said.
The couple had bought Christmas presents in November, and family and friends had been eager to help keep their supplies up.
"My parents have been helping out leaving things on the front porch, and we've had friends drop off alcohol because they feel bad for us, which is really, really lovely.
"A friend dropped off meat from the butcher and we made salads, but you miss all the family cooking, the prawns and everything."
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