Cluster sparks Australian fears
The Marist College cluster is dividing Australians over whether students should be sent back to school across the ditch.
Medical experts are reassuring Australian parents the cluster at the Auckland school is no reason to fear sending their children back to classrooms.
The cluster, which began at Marist College with a teacher who tested positive on March 22, has so far infected 94 people and is New Zealand’s second largest cluster.
In Australia, some parents, doctors and commentators have cited the Marist cluster as proof the country should be more cautious about sending students back into Australian classrooms.
However, medical experts have dismissed those concerns, telling The Sun-Herald in Australia the outbreak did not in fact show children are susceptible to the virus.
Microbiologist Siouxsie Wiles, head of the Bioluminescent Superbugs Lab at the University of Auckland, said the cluster was named after the school but that did not mean the transmissions all happened there.
‘‘It is not that 100 children and teachers got it,’’ she said. ‘‘It’s the fact that it spread to their families, that kind of thing.’’
Kristine Macartney, director of the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance, and Australia’s foremost authority on child infections, said the cluster potentially arose from a cultural event held at the school, which showed why current social distancing measures were still required.
‘‘It sounds like it’s related to an event that occurred well before restrictions were in place or being adhered to,’’ she said.
Last week, director-general of health Ashley Bloomfield announced authorities would conduct a study into the Marist College cluster to determine the ‘‘pattern of infection’’.