Entire school to be tested

Public health officials are now asking everyone associated with an Auckland primary school to get tested after a girl carrying coronavirus visited the school.

The request came as inconsistencies emerge in official information provided about the new case of the young girl, the most recent patient known to have caught Covid-19 in the community.

The Ministry of Health (MOH) initially said the child had been in isolation since August 30, but regional public health officials later said she had visited Chapel Downs Primary School on Monday morning.

The Auckland Regional Public Health Service (ARPHS) is now asking all students and staff associated with the school to get tested.

It has also emerged the ministry appears to have known on Sunday the girl was a potential case, the day before she was briefly at the school. The case was announced by the MOH on Monday afternoon as the sole new community case that day, part of the Botany sub-cluster genomically linked to the existing Auckland cluster.

The ministry said the child had been in isolation since August 30 because they were a household contact of a confirmed case.

But the letter from ARPHS said the child was at the school on Monday morning.

‘‘The child and three close contacts were dropped off before school onMonday, September 14, for around 30 minutes until they were picked up around 9am.

‘‘The child received a positive test result for the virus later that day.’’

In addition, details of confirmed cases provided on the MOH’s website say officials were notified the girl was a potential case on Sunday, the day before she visited the school and three days before the school was told.