Island unruffled by ‘weak positive’ test

Stewart Island residents are ‘‘a resilient group’’ and taking the news a preschooler has returned a weak-positive test for Covid-19 in their stride.

Island ward councillor Bruce Ford said he and his wife had been to a pop-up testing centre to get their swabs, but after negative results from the child’s family, the community was feeling fairly confident.

‘‘We’re not expecting anything extraordinary [from the results],’’ Ford said.

The child’s family originally had pre-departure testing ahead of travel, when the weak positive was returned.

The rest of the family tested negative and repeat testing was also negative.

The community was a resilient group and it was business as usual on the island, Ford said.

‘‘We are accustomed to all manner of things. We’re strong, healthy people.’’

Officials had been unable to identify any source of infection and given the relative isolation of the community, health authorities believed it was most likely that the person was not a case, the Ministry of Health said.

As a precaution, the childcare centre on the island had been closed for the rest of the week and possible contacts had been asked to isolate.

The childcare centre, operating as Rakiura Rugrats, directed all media queries to the Southern District Health Board.

At a press conference yesterday, Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said officials felt that the Stewart Island case was a false positive.

However, because it was an isolated community, all the children at the daycare would be tested, Bloomfield said.

A weak positive is presumed to be positive until information suggests otherwise. The ministry expected the results of serology testing late yesterday.

WellSouth chief executive officer Andrew Swanson-Dobbs said six staff had been sent to the island to begin community testing.

A testing station opened at a community centre at 1pm.

Southland district mayor Gary Tong said Stewart Island was an isolated community but a lot of people travelled to and from it.

Real Journeys general manager Paul Norris said there had been a few cancellations since news of the weak-positive test broke.

Invercargill Airport general manager Nigel Finnerty said there had been no flight cancellations between Invercargill and Stewart Island.