Covid-19 Omicron outbreak: 200 students at Albany Junior High School impacted, return to online learning

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A large Auckland school is being forced to return to online learning after a Covid outbreak that has impacted on 200 students in just two days.

This comes as Covid case numbers in some regions begin to climb again, including across Auckland's three district health boards.

All students at Albany Junior High School will return to online learning from tomorrow for seven days as the school works to control the outbreak.

The school's principal Cushla Shepherd wrote in a notice that the outbreak was having an adverse impact.

"We are now at a point where our ability to cover teaching classes with rigour and consistency is unachievable," she said.

"It is disappointing that we are not able to maintain our normal school format for now, but we are confident, given our past experience with home learning, that our students can continue to learn positively and constructively.

"It is important for us to keep a sense of perspective at this time to navigate the ever changing situation with care, planning, flexibility and effective communication."

The notice indicates that Year 9 and 10 camp would continue as normal, school sports training and games could still go ahead.

Students that aren't able to do learning from home are able to register to attend supervised learning at the school's library.

"Our duty of care for our students, staff, and our school community is our highest priority," Shepherd wrote.

A school spokesperson said affected students were absent for various reasons including contracting Covid and self-isolating as household contacts or other unrelated reasons.

While the numbers of those absent hadn't increased in recent months, the school was moving to online learning for the coming week due to not having enough staff to adequately cover classes.

Students would be able to return from Thursday, May 19.

Figures collated from the Herald show the seven-day average of cases has tracked up across all Auckland DHBs since mid-to-late April.

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Cases peaked in Auckland on March 4 when 13,252 new infections were reported. The seven-day moving average of cases peaked the next day.

Cases then declined to the seven-day moving average low point on April 19 of 1569.

Since then, the moving average has risen 50 per cent to 2390 yesterday.