Unvaccinated kids told to stay put

Parents of unvaccinated children are being urged not to take them in or out of Auckland as authorities try to halt the measles outbreak spreading further.

It comes as more than 1000 students at South Auckland schools are being kept at home to prevent exposure to the virus. Children at one school are being asked to stay away from a national sports tournament next week.

At the same time the Ministry of Health is warning people travelling to Auckland to ensure they are vaccinated. It is urging parents to make sure infants aged 12 to 14 months have jabs at least two weeks before visiting Auckland, even

though the first normal measles vaccination is at 15 months.

The outbreak, which started in January, has shown little sign of slowing. The number of confirmed cases in Auckland has risen to 731, with 501 in Counties Manukau. A further 144 cases have been confirmed around New Zealand.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern yesterday called for parents to vaccinate their children.

Ardern, who said her own baby Neve was up to date with her vaccinations, said she was worried about those who chose not to be vaccinated. “My strong advice to anyone is make sure that you are vaccinated, make sure that you are not relying on simply not having contact. The smartest, safest thing to do is to be vaccinated.”

There is concern about the highly contagious disease spreading further afield ahead of the School Sport NZ’s annual winter tournament next week. About 25,000 secondary school students are due to take part in the tournament which is held at multiple venues across the North and South Islands.

College Sport Auckland has asked its 110 secondary schools to check the vaccination records of all students before they go.

Aorere College principal Greg Pierce said about six students had caught measles this year and one case was still “live”, forcing the college to send home 20 to 30 students this week. He has met all students going to the winter tournament to request their vaccination records.

“We will ask them not to go if they are not vaccinated,” he said. At Manurewa High School, which is at the epicentre of the epidemic, only half its roll of 2000 were at school yesterday. Principal Pete Jones said there were 10 confirmed measles cases and four more pending.

“We asked wha¯nau not to send children who were not immunised. We had just over 1000 students in school today,” he said. “That’s 300 who had already been sent home and another 700 who stayed home today.”

James Cook High School, also in Manurewa, has had one case confirmed and another dozen or so “signalled”, and asked parents yesterday to keep unimmunised children at home in two classes where students had contact with an affected student at another school.

“I’m assuming we are just a few days or weeks behind where Manurewa High School are,” said principal Grant McMillan.

College Sport Auckland chief executive Jim Lonergan said the number of Auckland secondary schools that had at least one measles case was in “double figures”, and schools had taken different approaches to next week’s tournament.

“What schools are doing, as far as we can ascertain, is that where students haven’t been vaccinated they won’t be going because we want to minimise any risk,” he said.

Garry Carnachan of School Sport NZ, which runs the tournament, said unimmunised students were not banned and it was up to parents to “ensure their students are protected”.