Covid 19 coronavirus: school shelter closed after community meeting attendees were exposed

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

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

Then the locals attended a community meeting in Kawhia, about 60 km east of Otorohanga, where many school families live.

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

It included some of the whanau who attended a 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.