South Auckland student tested for coronavirus

An South Auckland student has been tested for Covid-19.

The student was new to Pukekohe Intermediate School and was "present with symptoms" of the virus, parents were told.

"This student was tested today, and we are awaiting the results. We will provide you with more information as this comes to hand," an online post said.

"This situation continues to change, and we want to be sure we continue to be transparent in our communication and keep you updated on recent developments."

The school has been in contact with the Ministry of Health and is following its recommendations.

Parents were urged to reassure and education their children on the Covid-19 outbreak and make use of the Ministry of Health website.

Families should also focus on prevention efforts to prevent the spread of the virus, with hygiene measures including through hand washing, covering coughs and sneezes and greeting people using the "back of an arm".

People living in the same house as travellers self-isolating should take the necessary precautions and parents were advised to use the term "physical distancing" rather than "social distancing".

"Maintaining a social connection is as vital as ever to people's wellbeing during this time."

It comes as a parent of a child at Ponsonby Primary School tested positive for coronavirus.

Board of trustees chairman Alan Webb told the Herald the board was not ready to say anything more yet.

"We are still working our way through it," he said.

Parents were told of the confirmed case by email. The school will be closed tomorrow anyway for a scheduled teacher-only day.

Another eight coronavirus cases were confirmed today, taking the total number of patients to 28.

Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield says there is still no evidence of community transmission in New Zealand.

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The Ministry of Health is contacting up to 1000 close contacts of the 28 confirmed cases.

Healthline will be provided with the details for the people considered close contacts from being on the flights with the new eight cases.

Bloomfield said he hasn't heard any official word on a full national lockdown, like in Italy.

"We are planning for a long-term effort here," Bloomfield said.

Bloomfield said he didn't have a timeframe for when New Zealand will experience community spread.

"We are watching very closely as to whether we have any community spread. We also want to act before we see any evidence of widespread community outbreak.

"We've seen a big increase in the number of tests being done, only a few of those cases are testing positive, but it does give us a good idea of whether there's wider community transmission. We're testing people with wider influenza symptoms and it's not at this point been Covid-19.

"There's a lot of work going on to confirm our labs have everything they need to conduct the tests, get the results out quickly, identify the positive results and contact trace."