COVID Procedures in the Event of a Positive Case

What I want to do is communicate to everyone that we have systems in place to respond to the eventuality of a visitor, student or staff member that is employed or on our school site having a confirmed case of COVID-19. 

Under the ‘Traffic Light’ system schools will not automatically close down when a case is confirmed within a school. All schools have been provided with clear guidelines to follow and tools that will enable us to isolate the person/s infected and then track the people who have been in contact (and the nature of the contact) with them throughout the day or days they were at school with the virus. 

The process will involve identifying those in contact, answering specific questions in regard to the contact (where were they, how long were they in this place, how ventilated was the space? …) to establish who is a close contact or casual plus contact. We will be supported to do this by our local MOE office and a representative from Public Health. 

We will then communicate next steps directly with whānau in a manner that provides the information you all need in regard to the nature of contact your child/ren may have had and what you need to do.

It is very important to note that we will only respond after receiving confirmed evidence of a case in our school community, most likely directly from the MOE and Public Health.