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The principal of an Auckland primary school at the center of claims of inconsistencies when health officials discovered a girl carrying the coronavirus attended says the community was informed “immediately”.
Chapel Downs School Principal Vaughan van Rensburg told RNZ on Friday that as soon as he received information from the Auckland Regional Public Health Service (ARPHS), the school informed its community.
“I can simply reconfirm to our community and reassure them as soon as we receive the information, we moved extremely fast, in minutes, to inform them of the exact situation.”
Stuff revealed Thursday that public health officials discovered Wednesday morning that the girl was at school on Monday.
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The girl and three close contacts were dropped off before school on Monday, September 14 for about 30 minutes until they were picked up around 9:00 a.m.
The boy had no symptoms but was awaiting the results of a Covid-19 test conducted on Saturday, an ARPHS statement to Stuff on Thursday he said.
Ricky Wilson / Stuff
The school is closed until Monday after a girl with coronavirus was briefly on its grounds.
“The child left school before the children started classes for the day, further reducing the risk to the school community.”
The school was informed of the case around 2 p.m. Wednesday.
In addition, details of confirmed cases provided on the Health Ministry website say officials were notified that the girl was a potential case on Sunday, the day before visiting the school and three days before it was reported to the school.
Van Rensburg told RNZ that the school community was working with ARPHS to find out what exactly happened.
All Chapel Downs students and staff were asked to take the test.
A “very small” number of people considered themselves close contacts of the girl and would isolate themselves for two weeks, ARPHS said.
“While casual contacts have a very low risk of developing Covid-19, Public Health has requested that everyone in the school be tested and watch for symptoms.”
A pop-up testing center will be operational at the school from Friday, September 18 to Sunday, September 20 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
LAWRENCE SMITH / Things
Cars are lining up in pouring rain at Chapel Downs Elementary School for people to get tested for Covid-19 after a student tested positive Monday.
