Covid 19 coronavirus: more than 80 percent of Mt Albert Grammar School students, staff examined

An Auckland school that was asked to screen all of its 3,000 students and staff for Covid-19 has completed more than 80% in less than a week.

Everyone at Mt Albert Grammar School was asked to take the test after two students tested positive under different circumstances.

Associate Principal Jo Williams revealed in a statement today that 2,776 students and staff had been screened so far, a total of 81 percent, since the Auckland Regional Public Health Service request on Aug. 27.

There had been no transmission of Covid-19 through staff and students with this surveillance test to date.

“It has been an interesting time for our school community, to say the least, and this past week was a great example of ‘community’ in the way we responded to the Auckland Regional Public Health Service request for testing.” Williams said. .

“Thank you all for responding to this request and being a part of providing us with such reassuring information.”

The first case at the school was that of a teenager linked to a family that was one of the first identified in the Auckland group, which has now become the largest in New Zealand, on August 12.

The student showed up for classes on Monday before a region-wide lockdown, unaware that he was infected.

The second student tested positive Thursday and is believed to have been contagious between August 5 and 11.

Other students or staff were feared to have contracted the virus during that time and those who had not been tested since Aug. 17 were asked to do so.

The school reopened on Monday even though not all students had results.

A sports team from St Cuthbert’s College played a team from Mt Albert Grammar on August 6 and all seven players had been evaluated.

As of Sunday, five recovered their results. They were all negative.