Coronavirus Covid 19: Positive case on the Wellington-Hamilton flight; school hostel, closed hotel

A Waikato school hostel and hotel closed after a positive Covid-19 case that potentially exposed community members on a flight.

The small towns of Kawhia and Otorohanga are now on high alert after learning of the flight.

Otorohanga College posted on Facebook page today that a contagious person was on a flight from Wellington to Hamilton with two members of the local school community.

It is understood that the locals later attended a meeting at the Kawhia Community Center on Saturday.

Then some people attended a hui at Te Awamutu on Sunday. Attendees at the hui, run by the Maori Women’s Welfare League, have been told by health authorities that they do not need to isolate themselves or get tested.

The Ministry of Health has not yet released any public information about a positive case on a flight from Wellington to Hamilton, so it is unclear if it is a new community case.

But the university said it had received a message this morning from the district health board confirming the case. The Ministry will reveal more details in its press conference at 1:00 p.m. today.

The university, about 60 km east of Kawhia, where many school families live, has closed its hostel and the Kawhia hotel has temporarily closed.

The Kawhia school this morning remained open saying that the school had contacted the covid center, who advised that only close contacts should isolate themselves and get tested.

Otorohanga said on Facebook that two “casual contacts” who were on the flight had been evaluated and were awaiting results.

The health doctor supported “our preventive response to temporarily close the shelter.”

“The expectation is that the shelter will reopen on Wednesday morning. If you are concerned or have symptoms, get tested.”

Otorohanga Mayor Max Baxter said he had been told that some close contacts of the person infected on the flight may have gone to various meetings in the region.

“We know that there have been a couple of meetings in Taharoa and Kawhia, but I don’t know at this point how many people were involved or if any of those people were infected.”

He said they are awaiting instructions from the Ministry on what to do next. Understand that some people went to the cafe after one of the meetings in Kawhia.

A Kawhia Hotel innkeeper, who wanted to be known as Doug, said: “We have a recommendation from the council to stay closed for today while they get more information. It’s purely a precaution.”

The school previously said on Facebook that anyone at the airport or on the flight could have been exposed to the virus.

It included some of the whanau who attended the meeting in Kawhia.

“Therefore, we have taken the very real precaution of meeting the buses when they arrive to ask both buses, with the students on board, to return to the coast,” the school said in an express mail.

“The Kawhia bus has already done it and is on its way home as I write this message and Tahaaroa will soon be doing the same, with our babies still on the bus.”

King Country School today asked everyone who had contact with someone at the meeting to urgently get tested and to isolate themselves until they received a negative result.

As a precaution, the hostel will be temporarily closed until the school administration can ensure that it is safe to reopen, the post reads.

“We are confident that we are being proactively cautious and will keep everyone informed,” the university said.

Otorohanga College has a hostel five days a week. Students arrive on Monday morning and go home on Friday afternoons. Most of the guests come from Taharoa, Kawhia, Marokopa and outlying coastal areas.

The university also asked if anyone had contacted someone from their coastal communities in the past 24 hours to get tested and remain isolated.

The university added that the covid-positive person did not attend the hui but was on a flight to Hamilton and whanau who attended the Kawhia meeting could possibly have been exposed to them.

The temporary closure of the shelter was a proactive and cautious measure in an attempt to “keep our babies, communities and ourselves safe.”

Authorities confirmed on Friday that a Defense Force worker at the Jet Park quarantine facility in Auckland had tested positive for Covid-19.

A second worker, from Wellington, tested positive for the virus after being in the same meeting as that person last Wednesday. That person took a flight from Auckland to Wellington the following night, Thursday 5 November.