Latest updates from PM announcement, school data and and Ministry of Health.

As you will be aware the Prime Minister made announcements about the mandates. Here are some basics about it affects schools.

• From 11.59 pm Monday, 4 April, the vaccine mandate covering staff in the education sector will be removed.

• We remain in traffic light setting Red, but limits on numbers of people gathering outdoors from 11.59 pm, 4 April will be removed, and indoor limits increased to 200. Non essential visitors will remain in place as they are part of the Red setting but we are waiting for further clarity for after 4 April

• Mask use continues as per the current policy.

• Isolation for COVID-19 positive people and their household contacts remains at seven days.

• Vaccine passes and contact tracing will not be required from this weekend. 

Our Data Updated

We have 3 positive cases today and 42 across the school.

Updated information from the Ministry of Health on Household contacts testing positive at different times

The Ministry of Health has provided further clarity on when household contacts should isolate.

What does it mean if I am a household contact? – Ministry of Health

For households where someone has COVID-19, the Ministry of Health recommends you apply the following guidance.

• If someone becomes a confirmed COVID-19 case, then that case and all other people in their household must isolate for seven days.

• If someone else in the household then tests positive for COVID-19 during those seven days:

  • the isolation period for that person only re-sets – that person must isolate for an additional seven days from the day they test positive or symptoms begin

  • other household contacts who do not test positive are still able to leave isolation after the original case has completed their seven days isolation.

• For the next 10 days after a household completes seven days isolation, evidence shows that due to their exposure to COVID-19 they are less likely to catch or transmit the virus. This means:

  • if someone else in the household tests positive within those 10 days, the whole household will not have to re-isolate, only the positive case.

  • if someone else in the household tests positive and it has been more than 10 days since the household completed isolation, household contacts should re-isolate along with the new case for seven days.

• Any person who has had COVID-19 within the last 90 days/three months will not need to isolate as a household contact unless they become symptomatic and test positive again. This is because reinfection rates for people who have had COVID-19 are low for the three months after they have the virus.

Remember, Day 0 for isolation is the day symptoms began or the day the positive test was taken (whichever came first). You should then count your seven days from there.