Covid-19 Delta outbreak: Malfroy School case a student, work to identify close contacts

Malfroy Primary School. Photo / NZME

A positive Covid-19 case in the Malfroy School community has been confirmed as a student.

Parents and caregivers of students who attend the school were asked to keep their children at home after a confirmed case was announced in a social media post by the school on Sunday.

Malfroy School principal Nicky Brell said he and three other staff members on the school's pandemic team were working on identifying close and casual contacts today.

The school will then be in touch with the parents and caregivers of those contacts.

At that point, Brell said, the Ministry of Health would take over the process.

"Hopefully we can get through all of that today."

Brell said he could not disclose the number of contacts as that would jeopardise the privacy of members of the school community.

"The health and wellbeing of our children, staff and community is a top priority," Brell said.

If children show any cold or flu-like symptoms, parents and caregivers have been told to contact their health professional, GP or the Ministry of Health.

Chairwoman of the school's Board of Trustees Margaret Metcalf said the school was as well prepared as any other school in this outbreak.

Sunday's cases

There was one new case of Covid-19 reported in Rotorua on Sunday and three in Tauranga. The Rotorua case was linked to an existing cluster, while two of the Tauranga cases were linked to known cases.

For new locations of interest click here.

Traffic light setting review

Cabinet will decide today whether Auckland and other red regions, including the Lakes district, can move to the orange setting ahead of Christmas.

Ahead of today's announcement at 4pm - revealing whether or not there will be further movement down in the traffic light system, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said: "We do want to be cautious"

The country still needed to be careful as we are in a transitional state, she said.

The country still needed to be careful as we are in a transitional state.

On the Omicron variant, Ardern acknowledged that the border measures at the moment would help to keep it out of New Zealand.

Epidemiologist Rod Jackson doesn't want to see any change in traffic light settings because 10 days since Freedom Friday wasn't long enough.

Bars were the only ones keen to move as most restaurants seemed to be doing okay, he told RNZ.

"Ten days is just too soon."

This decade was going to be the decade of vaccinations and it was the only way we would get back to any resemblance of normality, he said.

New Zealand had done amazingly well to reach the targets it had so far and it just needed to keep going.

"If we loosen restrictions more we are going to end up going up again by the end of the year."

Where to get tested

Rotorua Covid-19 Community Testing Centre, Copthorne Hotel, Entrance off Ward Avenue, Rotorua. Open Monday to Sunday. 8.30am to 3pm.

Taupō Covid-19 Community Testing Centre, 79 Miro St, Taupō. Open Monday to Sunday. 8.30am to 3pm.