Norovirus threat emerges ahead of Commonwealth Games

[March 05, 2018]    (Reuters) - A Gold Coast school that will serve as a key residential and training venue for next month's Commonwealth Games is to undergo sanitization measures due to a highly contagious virus which causes nausea and vomiting.

The Southport School has been hit by the norovirus this term and will be cleansed before the athletes arrive for the quadrennial multi-sport event from April 4-15. The school has been ordered by Queensland Health to close from March 26-28, the last three days of the term.

An outbreak of norovirus struck down hundreds of security staff and Games personnel at last month's Winter Olympics in South Korea's Pyeongchang. The athletic delegations were unaffected apart from two Swiss freestyle skiers.

"While illness numbers are decreasing and are now quite low, Queensland Health continues to be concerned that our Norovirus event is lingering on too long, which is not good for our boys, families and staff," the Australian Associated Press quoted the school's principal Greg Wain as saying in a statement.

"They are also concerned that we are a key Commonwealth Games residential and sports training venue which needs to be virus free."

(Reporting by Sudipto Ganguly in Mumbai; editing by Peter Rutherford)

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