Girl’s positive test and how it unfolded
Daughter’s Covid confirmation from health officials the call no parent wants during a pandemic
It is the phone call no parent wants to get during a pandemic — confirmation their child has tested positive for Covid-19. But it was the reality for the family of a little girl who had just been dropped off at school less than 10 minutes before.
The Ministry of Health has released more details about the positive case confirmed by authorities on Monday — giving a timeline of events leading up to the result and what led to the youngster’s school, Chapel Downs Primary, being closed for the rest of the week.
Disclosure of the Chapel Downs case came as the ministry announced there were no new virus cases yesterday. New Zealand now has 70 active cases, which include 33 imported cases in isolation facilities and 37 community cases.
The last time NZ reported zero new cases was on August 10, the day before news of the Auckland cluster.
There have now been no new cases in the community for four days, with some imported cases reported.
The ministry said four people were in hospital with Covid-19 — one each at Auckland City and North Shore hospitals and two in Middlemore.
Three are in isolation on a ward, while one is in intensive care at Middlemore Hospital.
The total number of confirmed cases remains at 1458.
Laboratory testing for the girl, aged under 10, took place over the weekend and a notification of a positive lab result was produced at
7.30pm last Sunday. This was when the the pupil was due to come out of a
14-day isolation, after the household went into quarantine on August 30.
Despite the positive result being found out on Sunday night, the positive test was reviewed the next day by the Auckland Regional Public Health Service, where it was matched to the child.
That process was completed and the national database updated at
8.17am on Monday — most likely as the pupil, who was asymptomatic, and three other close contacts were on their way to school.
Just over 20 minutes later, at 8.39am, the girl’s family received a phone call from a medical officer confirming the test had come back positive.
“This is the date the ministry was formally notified and it is the same day we publicly reported the case,” a spokeswoman said.
“This timeline means there was a period on Monday morning when the family would have been unaware of the child’s positive result.
“That is when the child — who was asymptomatic — was briefly on the school grounds but was picked up following notification of the result.”
The ministry spokeswoman said as soon as formal notification was received, steps were taken to alert the rest of the family and contact tracing and interviews started to take place.
Two days later, on Wednesday morning, staff at the ARPHS received further information the affected child had been at school between 8.30am and 9am on Monday before the family knew she was a positive case.
Chapel Downs Primary School principal Vaughan van Rensburg said the school was told at 2pm that Wednesday about the positive case being on school grounds for 30 minutes.
“This information was shared as soon as events were confirmed on Wednesday and appropriate actions initiated,” the spokeswoman said.
On Thursday , a call was made to every staff member and pupil connected to the school to get a Covid-19 test as a precaution.
The school has been closed since the positive case was confirmed so health authorities can contact what they’ve described as a very small number of people deemed to have been close contacts of the pupil when she was briefly at school on Monday.
Meanwhile health officials are following up with authorities in Malaysia after reports two people travelling from New Zealand tested positive for Covid-19 in the country.
A ministry spokesman said it was trying to find out more information on the reports from Malaysian authorities.
Media in Malaysia reported that Malaysia health director general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah announced 21 new Covid-19 cases in the Southeast Asian country yesterday. He said two of those cases were imported from New Zealand.
The two cases were in the state of Selangor, which encircles the capital Kuala Lumpur.
In July, a person tested positive after arriving in Malaysia from New Zealand, only to later return a negative result after being retested.
In the same month, the Ministry of Health tracked contacts, including from a visit to Queenstown, of a South Korean who tested positive after travelling from New Zealand.