A principal at a high school in Auckland's North Shore has self-quarantined against coronavirus after spending time in northern Italy, but not before spending yesterday morning in school.
Claire Amos, principal of Albany Senior High School, announced her 14-day quarantine last night in a social media statement. She has assured parents that she wasn't in close contact with any students.
"As you may well be aware, I was in Bologna, Italy, last week (as an invited speaker at an international education conference), and arrived back into the country on Sunday," Ms Amos said in a statement .
Bologna, where she spent time, is in the northern Italy region - just under two and a half hours away from Lombardy, which is the centre of the European country's Covid-19 outbreak.
"I can assure you that I was not in close contact with any students and do not believe my being at school posed a risk to any of our staff, students, or community members," she said.
"I want to assure you that I am in excellent health and am following self-isolation as a precautionary measure as per this afternoon’s updated Ministry of Health guidelines."
Ms Amos said that as a school leader, she would take all precautionary measures.
"With this latest announcement, I will, therefore, be self-isolating for the next 14 days," she said.
One concerned parent, who asked not to be named, told 1 NEWS: “I think she’s made the right choice…but why the hell was she in school on Monday at all?”
More than 90 per cent of the cases have been in the Chinese province of Hubei.
Ms Amos' announcement comes as 1 NEWS understands testing is underway to determine whether two Kiwis who are currently unwell have Covid-19.
Multiple rounds of testing will happen throughout the day with results expected later today.
Yesterday, Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield told media the two were very close to meeting the definition of a suspected case.
They had both recently travelled from an infected area and were unwell.
Officials have not confirmed where the two people travelled from or where in New Zealand they are now.
A doctors' conference in Auckland has also been postponed because of the virus.
Organisers of the WONCA (or World Organisation of Family Doctors) conference made the announcement today. It was originally going ahead for an April date in the city.
CEO Lynne Hayman said the decision was about acting wisely.
“We couldn’t responsibly have so many New Zealand GPs, practice nurses, and practice managers out of circulation in late April, even for a short time, in light of the evolving situation with Covid-19," said Ms Hayman.
"The college needs to act wisely and ensure our GPs and other primary care professionals, who are the key to medical care in the community, remain available where they’re needed most."
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