Schools close after staff test positive for Covid-19

Staff from Broadgreen Intermediate and Enner Glynn School have been confirmed as having Covid-19 according to the schools.

Both schools issued a statement on Wednesday confirming that a staff member had tested positive.

Both schools will be closed on Thursday, 2 December to allow contact tracing to be undertaken.

Broadgreen Intermediate principal Pete Mitchener said in a statement on Wednesday that a staff member had been confirmed positive and was infectious at school from Tuesday, 23 November.

He said a number of people are possibly ‘close contacts’ and will need to get tested immediately, and self-isolate at home.

"Broadgreen Intermediate will be closed tomorrow, Thursday 2 December, to allow us to conduct the contact tracing.

"We will notify you if your child is considered a close contact," he said.

A close contact is someone that has been identified to have been near the person that has tested positive for Covid-19.

A statement from Enner Glynn said that they have been advised by the Ministry of Health that their staff member was infectious since Monday, 29 November.

The news comes as a fourth case of Covid was confirmed in Nelson on Wednesday.

The new case is in addition to yesterday's three but added to the tally today, director general of health Ashley Bloomfield said.

The first case in Nelson was someone who had symptoms for a "wee while" so there was a period of time that they were infectious in the community.

Genome sequencing will determine how they got infected.

There was another person not associated with the first case - from yesterday - who wasn't linked and they were following that up. That person had workplace and household contacts that were isolating.

Bloomfield issued a reminder that if you did have Covid symptoms, dry cough, sore throat loss of smell or taste, runny nose, do still get tested straight away.