Siblings latest cases from school outbreak

WELLINGTON: Two siblings of the Auckland schoolgirl who tested positive for Covid19 yesterday were last night confirmed as cases, too.

One is a recent schoolleaver who works at Kmart Botany, in Auckland, which is now a location of interest.

Thirtyone staff are considered close contacts and have been asked to isolate and get tested.

Anyone who was at the store on February 19 and 20 between 3.30pm and 10.30pm is considered a “casual plus” contact and must stay home and get tested today.

All 1500 pupils and 150 staff at Papatoetoe High School are being told to isolate and get retested, despite the initial case not attending school yesterday.

Anyone who lives with a pupil or teacher must isolate until their family member tests negative.

The third positive case in that household is an infant who was not taken to any early childhood care.

It is understood officials were last night working to establish whether the cluster was still considered contained.

Covid19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins will hold a media conference at 1pm today.

The Papatoetoe school pupil tested positive for Covid yesterday morning after developing muscle aches and a loss of smell.

It was the first time the schoolgirl had been tested despite a “get tested” order more than a week after her fellow pupil was confirmed as a case in the Valentine’s Day cluster.

There had been many unsuccessful attempts to contact the pupil and her family since last Monday.

Household contacts of pupils and staff were not asked to isolate last week, so the five other people in the family of the latest case were free to go about their normal lives.

Directorgeneral of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said there were 10 other outstanding “casual plus” contacts at the school who posed a risk and were being followed up.

Contact tracers were sometimes making more than a dozen phone calls, texts and emails, checking with GPs to doublecheck contact details, and had to employ interpreters where there were language barriers.

Teams would now be deployed to knock on doors of those who had not yet been tested, Dr Bloomfield said.

“It’s not for anyone to pass judgement on what other people are doing,” he said when asked why the student had not been tested already.

To avoid a witch hunt on social media, Mr Hipkins asked New Zealanders to “demonstrate a little bit of kindness” during case investigations.

National Party Covid19 Response spokesman Chris Bishop said it was concerning the latest case had not been tested sooner and urged the Government to move faster.

He said contact tracers should be going out and knocking on doors if they could not get hold of someone.

“Speed is of the essence here . . . It is worrying it’s taken a week to find this person.”

The Government also came under fire in February when it took more than 10 days to contact all the 353 returnees from the Pullman Hotel after a fellow guest tested positive after leaving managed isolation.

At the time, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the Ministry of Health needed to look at the reasons behind the “lag” in contact tracing.

Mr Hipkins said even if yesterday’s case had been uncovered before the Cabinet’s alert level decision on Monday, it would not have been enough to prevent a move to Level 1 because the perimeter of the outbreak was still well contained.