The mother of a Logan Park High School pupil has expressed "massive relief" at the news that her son is among almost 150 pupils to test negative for Covid-19.
The Ministry of Health confirmed today that none of the close contacts of a case at the school - a pupil - had tested positive.
The news of the negative results and the announcement that the school will reopen on Tuesday came as the Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield today confirmed eight new cases, including two in the South, meaning there have been three positive cases in the province and six cases across the South.
The two southern cases were in Dunedin and Queenstown.
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Dr Bloomfield said the school testing results indicated the Dunedin cases were linked to overseas travel, rather than a possible community link.
"This is reassuring for the local community and for our broader public health response."
The mother contacted the Otago Daily Times after the results were announced, saying it was a "massive relief", and she could hug her kids and husband again.
"The uncertainty was making it hard to concentrate today as I kept checking my email.
"So my son still has to self-isolate in case he starts showing symptoms or in case of a false negative but we can relax a little bit."
Earlier, Secretary of Education Iona Holsted acknowledged the support that the school and school community had shown each other over the past couple of days while waiting for the test results.
"We are pleased the school is reopening on Tuesday after the Otago anniversary holiday."
The school will be carefully cleaned before reopening.
"All 150 close contacts will remain in self-isolation for a period of 14 days.
"Over that time, as a further precaution they will be watched carefully for symptoms in case they develop," Dr Bloomfield said/
Dr Bloomfield earlier this afternoon commented on the situation with Logan Park High School pupils, saying: "So far most of the tests have come back for the high school students and they are all negative."
"We are just waiting for the last batch to go through. We will have those soon and we will update as soon as we have got those."
Dr Bloomfield said all the cases in New Zealand remained linked to overseas travel, bringing the total number of cases to 28.
There is still no evidence of community transmission in NZ, Bloomfield says.
The other cases announced today are: two in Taranaki, one in Rotorua, one in Northland and two in Auckland.
Southland man tests positive yesterday
Yesterday an Invercargill man was confirmed as the first person in the city to test positive for Covid-19.
He was South’s fourth Covid-19 case, and one of eight new cases in New Zealand announced yesterday.
He was named today as businessman Neil McAra.
The other new cases yesterday were four in Auckland, two in Waikato and one in Christchurch.
One of the eight patients arrived in the country after Monday's travel restrictions were imposed.
The woman, aged in her 40s, arrived from London; the seven others came from Europe, Sydney, the Gold Coast, and North America.
The Invercargill man who tested positive yesterday is in his 40s and works at Findex Invercargill, and had returned from the Gold Coast on March 10.
The Southern District Health Board last night issued a list of places the man had been where there was a low risk others could have contracted Covid-19 by coming into contact with him.
The places, all in Invercargill were: The Batch Cafe, March 16 at 8.30am and March 17 at 9.30am; New World, Windsor, March 12 at 4pm-5pm; the Waihopai Football Club, Surrey Park, March 12, 5pm-6pm; the Southland Athletics Championship, Surrey Park, March 14, 10am-11am and 3pm-4pm.
Last night, The New Zealand Herald reported the man had children who attended both Southland Boys’ and Southland Girls’ high schools.
The pupils were well and without symptoms, and there was minimal risk to other students, staff or others at the schools, the Southern District Health Board said in letters to parents.
With NZ Herald
