Auckland Primary School students and staff asked to be tested for Covid after a positive student attended school

Health officials asked all staff and students at an Auckland primary school to get tested for Covid-19 after a contagious student briefly attended Monday.

Chapel Downs Elementary School was closed last night until next Monday at the earliest for a deep cleaning, after the school was informed of the positive case.

Health authorities confirmed this morning that the girl, under the age of 10, was connected to the botany subgroup in Auckland. She showed no symptoms while at school.

She and three other close contacts were dropped off at the school, on Dawson Rd, for half an hour before being picked up again.

The student, who had been tested for Covid-19, received a positive result that same day. She was sent to school even though she was still waiting for the result.

The Auckland Regional Public Health Service (ARPHS) today asked all staff and students to get tested for Covid-19, but said the vast majority of people there were considered casual contacts.

“An ARPHS spokesperson says that a very small number of people are close contacts and will remain in self-isolation for 14 days until the end of Monday, September 28,” ARPHS said in a statement.

“However, the vast majority of the school are asked to stay away from others outside the home until they are tested and come back negative.

“The parents and siblings of these school-age children don’t need to stay home.”

While casual contacts had a very low risk of developing Covid-19, everyone should get tested and watch for Covid symptoms as a precaution, the statement read.

Mother ‘furious’ at the delay in the notification of the Covid case at school

A mother is frustrated that it took two days for parents to discover that the student tested positive for coronavirus.

Ramona Ah Fook, a pregnant mother of two at the school, said that the morning period is busy and that children in all classes would be close to each other.

“There’s a front entrance and a back entrance … When you walk through the school gates, everyone huddles. There isn’t enough space so the kids breathe each other,” said Ah Fook.

Ah Fook was furious, it took him two days to find out about the positive case.

“They have absolutely no right to support our children, or allow them, to go to a place where Covid existed for two whole days. And now they have decided to close the school for a complete cleaning.”

“It’s understandable that some parents are upset.”

Principal Vaughan van Rensburg this afternoon told parents and caregivers that a Covid testing site would be at the school this Friday and Saturday.

The test site would be open both days from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Van Rensburg, who yesterday told the Herald that he only learned of the case at 2 p.m. Wednesday, once again thanked the school community for their support.

ARPHS said the boy was only reported on Wednesday to have attended school while waiting for a positive test result.

“The child who was briefly in school had no symptoms, but was awaiting the results of a Covid-19 test on September 13,” the statement said.

“It is understandable that some parents are upset that they did not find out until Wednesday; however, this information was shared as soon as the facts were confirmed Wednesday.”

On Monday, the Health Ministry confirmed that there was a community case to report: a girl who was epidemiologically linked to an existing case associated with the Botany subgroup.

That subgroup, now made up of six people, is genomically linked to the broader August Auckland group.

Health officials said that day that the boy had been in isolation since August 30; as she was a family contact from a previously confirmed case.

Since the girl had been in isolation since August 30, the mandatory 14-day quarantine period ended on Sunday before she returned to school.

The family was cooperating with public health authorities and had been in isolation until this event, ARPHS said.

The first botanical case was reported on August 28 and is reportedly made up of two households.

As of September 5, the subgroup included 42 contacts identified at that time.

Chief Health Officer Dr. Ashley Bloomfield has previously said authorities were hopeful the botany subgroup was now well contained.

“It’s just that it showed up quite late, several weeks after the first cases of this outbreak,” he said.

Last Thursday, the Health Ministry published a series of new locations of interest, where confirmed positive cases of Covid-19 had visited before being identified.

Meanwhile, seven new cases of Covid-19 were reported today, all in controlled isolation.

No new community cases were reported. Four people are in the hospital, but none are in the ICU.

The Health Ministry says that with the exception of one arrival from Uzbekistan, all new cases were detected as a result of the day 3 tests and are now in quarantine.

– with RNZ