The principal of a South Auckland high school set to temporarily close after a student tested positive for Covid-19 says it’s "our turn to do the best we can do to support the rest of the country".
Papatoetoe High School will be closed on Monday and Tuesday following an announcement this afternoon that one of the three new Covid-19 cases in the community is a student at the school.
Two other cases announced today include the student's mother and father.
Principal Vaughan Couillault told 1 NEWS the school will be "flipped to an online learning platform first thing tomorrow morning" while they "get our school community through the testing process".
Couillault said there are fewer than 50 close contacts linked to the student, whose parents also tested positive for Covid-19. The remaining 1400 students have been classified as casual contacts.
Of the "150-odd teachers" at the school, five are considered close contacts.
"Everybody’s been asked to be tested so all students, all staff and their families are being asked to be tested over the coming few days,” he said.
“For the casual contacts, things should return to normal, from the information I’ve got, once negative tests start rolling on in. For those close contacts, there’s a little more hard work ahead of them for the next couple of weeks.”
The cases in South Auckland are all from one family. (Source: Other)
Couillault said the rigorous testing is about keeping the wider community safe.
“It’s our turn to do the best we can do to support the rest of the country, to make sure that it doesn’t get outside the ringfence that we’re putting around our community and we’re doing everything we can to keep everybody else safe," he said.
"It’s a team of 5 million, it’s our turn at that."
He said he was "not quite sure on what happens after Tuesday" when the school is expected to reopen, however, "that information will come to light over the coming few hours and days".
"In the short term of priority is getting everybody tested and sorting out how far it has gone, if at all, whether it’s just a little small family outbreak or if it’s gotten away on people a little bit further than that but at this stage, we’re closed until Tuesday.
"The sooner those people return those negative tests, the faster that life can get back to normal for our community."
A testing station is currently being set up at the school.
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