Mr Parry said the school informed parents on Thursday. He did not disclose which of the two campuses the parent attended for privacy purposes.

"People need to be respectful when someone tests positive because it is an unknown for them. We should be looking after each other," he said.

"I guess for us that means being respectful to their circumstances and accepting people are trying to do the right thing.

"If a family needs to isolate but they wish for their child's schooling to continue we would provide remote education, but in first instance it's about making sure the children and family are well.

"We would not impose remote learning, it would be if they want to. It's about children having some routine and normality."

Tennille Deckert, who has two children at the school, said she sympathised with the person affected and their family.

She said the school had informed her the person and their family had been self-isolating since before children went back to school for the start of term three on Monday.

"The school has been very good at keeping the communication lines open," she said.

"I would like to think the community would help with supplying them with groceries and things they might need while self-isolating. I do think there are people out there that would be able to offer help and be compassionate enough."

Ms Deckert, a stay-at-home mum, said she had seen first hand the consequences of rumours spreading in the Wimmera about who had the virus.

"People need to understand some people can catch this when they haven't done anything wrong," she said. "Some people catch it from others who have been to hotspots and don't have symptoms, for example, which is pretty unfair.

"I've seen a few people get quite verbal and nasty about it in general conversation: People are angry about others who went down to Melbourne.

"I've noticed at the supermarket there are a lot more people wearing facemasks. There is a lot more panic knowing coronavirus is in Horsham. I suppose I am a bit nervous because if I get it I'm going to end up quite unwell, but in general I'm not panicking too much because they are self-isolating."

Jenna Moar, who has three children at Holy Trinity, said she was 'shocked' to hear that a parent with children at the school had tested positive. She said she also found out about this from her school's principal on Thursday.

"I guess you don't think it's going to happen to a degree," she said. "It does make you question if people are doing the right thing.

"I'm not worried about sending my kids to school. I like to think I can trust our school and the community to do the right thing. I feel like people are still being too complacent at all, and it's becoming scary.

Ms Moar said it was comforting to hear contact tracing was underway to an extent, but she thought more needed to be done to check people were isolating during and after having coronavirus tests in Horsham.

"We don't know if people have been to supermarkets or to Kmart before they got tested. It would be nice if people could say where they visited so at least if we feel like we have symptoms we could possibly trace it back to being a covid case," she said.

The Department of Health and Human Services says COVID-19 testing is available to anyone with the following symptoms: Fever, chills or sweats, cough, sore throat, shortness of breath, runny nose, and loss of sense of smell or taste.

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