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This story was originally published in RNZ.co.nz and republished with permission.
Health Minister Chris Hipkins says it has become clear that some close contacts from the church subgroup Mt Roskill Evangelical Fellowship were not previously disclosed, including a student who recently tested positive.
A student at St Dominic’s Catholic College in Auckland tested positive for Covid-19 and has been linked to the subgroup.
The student was last at school on Friday, but left early after starting to feel unwell.
Hipkins said that in this case it appears it was a close contact from the subgroup that had not previously been disclosed.
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Authorities are now investigating whether that was on purpose.
“That’s one of the things the investigation is looking at right now and it will include seeing if there was a deliberate decision not to disclose, or if it was just an oversight,” Hipkins said.
ROBERT KITCHEN / Things
Chris Hipkins said that in this case it appears that it was a close contact of the subgroup that had not previously been disclosed.
He said it has been a challenge working with this subgroup as some members do not understand the seriousness of the situation.
“Certainly there are some within the group who may not accept or have not previously accepted the science involved here.”
They are now being educated on the seriousness of the situation, he said.
“It certainly would seem like they were skeptical at first,” Hipkins said. “I think a lot has been done with them since then.”
RNZ
Health Minister Chris Hipkins says it has become clear that some close contacts from the church subgroup Mt Roskill Evangelical Fellowship were not previously disclosed, including a student who recently tested positive.
However, Hipkins said parents should feel safe sending their children to school.
“Clearly there have been one or two cases where the contact tracing system has not identified them, but they were detected through testing.
“So the backing of the extensive evidence is to collect the additional cases so that parents can be confident that outside of the schools that have been identified there are no additional cases that are not disclosed.”
St Dominic’s Catholic College will close for at least three days and the Ministry of Education is working to identify close contacts in the case.
This story was originally published in RNZ.co.nz and republished with permission.
