The principal of the South Auckland high school at the centre of a Covid-19 community outbreak says he "couldn't be prouder" of the community as it rallied together for testing.
Auckland moved to Alert Level 2 at 11.59pm yesterday, while the rest of the country moved to Level 1, with the Government's decision informed in part by widespread testing in the community.
Recent testing numbers are second only to last August, when the last Covid-19 lockdown occurred. Over 17,000 test results were delivered on Tuesday alone following the discovery of three Covid-19 cases — including a Year 9 student at Papatoetoe High School — in the community on Sunday. A further three cases, including a classmate of the student and two of the classmate's family members, were discovered yesterday.
A testing station was established at the school on Monday, where it will remain open until Sunday. The school will remain closed until next week.
Rhonda Nguyen says the school is committed to getting tested to keep the rest of the country safe. (Source: Other)
Papatoetoe High School head girl Rhonda Nguyen described to Breakfast how people were waiting “up to five, six hours” for a Covid-19 test on the first day the testing station was established.
“Everybody went and lined up on the first day to get tested to make sure that we get the right data in,” she said.
School principal Vaughan Couillault said he “couldn’t be prouder, really”.
“The community is just awesome … They’re spectacular,” he said. “What a bunch of humans.”
Vaughn Couillaut says he hasn’t heard of any staff or students experiencing Covid-19 symptoms. (Source: Other)
He said while people were “queueing up for hours”, they came prepared with “picnics in the car and they had battery chargers for their phones”.
Couillault said people were “waving and thanking me for the opportunity” despite waiting for hours to be tested, which he called “just humbling” and “a beautiful thing”.
The new cases are both students at Papatoetoe High School. (Source: Other)
“Nobody wants to be doing the job that I’ve done this week but I’m just the tip of the iceberg – there’s a whole lot of people on my site from the Waipareira testing team to my senior leadership team to teachers at home that have been making the machinery of the school to keep it running while we’re trying to do the Covid testing over the top.
“Just humbled, proud.”
Nguyen said it was scary to learn of the re-emergence of Covid-19 in the school community.
“At the beginning, it was like, ‘Oh, it’s kind of happening again,’ and as a Year 13, these things are something you don’t really want to happen because it’s your last year and all the things happen and you just don’t want to miss out on anything.”
Couillault said while Auckland has moved down to Level 2, Papatoetoe High School students, staff and their families must retain Level 3 status until Sunday.
Students and staff at Papatoetoe High School are among those urged to get a test following the latest outbreak. (Source: Other)
He said while the school reopens on Monday morning, students and staff may return only after returning a negative Covid-19 test.
“We’ll be checking people at the gate like it’s a rock concert because everyone coming in that gate that has tested negative is a bit of a rockstar in my eyes,” he said.
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