Covid 19 Omicron outbreak: Musselburgh School keeping calm but quiet principal says

The first school in the South to be hit by a positive Covid case among its pupils in the Omicron outbreak was "calm but quiet" yesterday.

Musselburgh School principal Rob Taylor said years 5 and 6 pupils from the Dunedin school were isolating at home yesterday after a pupil tested positive at the weekend.

"I'd say there's concern in the community, of course," Taylor said.

"Primary school students, 12 and under, are the largest group of unvaccinated people in the country."

There were three bubbles of pupils at the school and the years 1 and 2 bubble and the years 3 and 4 bubble continued to attend school as normal yesterday.

Taylor said he did not know yesterday whether any further positive test results had turned up among the children who were to be tested.

He could not offer any details about the infected child.

He said with guidance from the Ministries of Health and Education at the weekend, preparations for the first day with a known case in the school community, including identifying close contacts, had gone relatively smoothly.

Staff had been "fantastic" and the community had been supportive, he said.

"It's quiet, really calm, but quiet," Taylor said yesterday.

The school had undergone an extra round of cleaning on Sunday.

Staff were working with those pupils who would resume lessons from home during their isolation, he said.

Otago Primary Principals' Association president Vicki Nicolson, of Port Chalmers School, said all schools would have plans in place for what to do when they received a call to say there was a Covid case in the school community.