Covid 19 coronavirus: Marist College cases confirmed in Auckland

Name: Focus Live: 78 new coronavirus cases, 168 Kiwi travellers in quarantine
Uploaded: 2020-03-26T14:01:06+13:00
Duration: 707 s
Description: There are 78 new cases of Covid-19, including 73 confirmed cases and five new probable cases, Director General of Health Ashley Bloomfield says. The new cases bring the total number of confirmed or probable infections to 283.

NZ Herald

26 Mar, 2020 12:24 AM2 mins to read

There are 78 new cases of Covid-19, including 73 confirmed cases and five new probable cases, Director General of Health Ashley Bloomfield says. The new cases bring the total number of confirmed or probable infections to 283.

Auckland's Marist College now has 11 confirmed cases of coronavirus.

The decile 7 Catholic girls' school with 759 students in Mt Albert has been closed all week after a teacher tested positive for the virus at the weekend.

Stephen Dallow, Marist Girls College Board of Trustees chairman, confirmed in a statement today seven of the cases were teachers, including the school's principal, Raechelle Taulu. The others were students.

"We believe we will have more cases tomorrow and ask our school community to stand together and follow the Ministry of Health instructions to isolate," Dallow said.

"We wish principal Raechelle Taulu a speedy recovery.

"We encourage our community if they become unwell to get tested and stay isolated - we will get through this. Take care and God bless."

• Covid19.govt.nz: The Government's official Covid-19 advisory website

On Sunday, Taulu told the Herald the school's priority was to "wrap around" the woman who first contracted coronavirus to make sure she had all the support she needed and to support other staff and the school community.

"We have been planning for this in terms of being prepared for students to work remotely from home - like many schools," Taulu said.

"Marist is an amazing community so I know that at the end of the day we will all look out for each other."

The Auckland Regional Public Health Service traced close contacts of the woman.

Parents were also asked not to post any identifying information about the woman on social media as that could lead to bullying or online abuse.

The neighbouring Marist Primary School was also closed. The Catholic school told parents the board had decided to close because of familial links between the two schools and interactions between staff and students.