University of Otago students on Tuesday held a large St Patrick's Day party, just metres from a school forced to close due to a confirmed case of coronavirus COVID-19.
Logan Park High School was closed for at least 48 hours after one of its students tested positive. The student is the son of a Dunedin man who contracted COVID-19 after returning from Europe.
But that didn't stop Dunedin students from partying and, despite the Government banning mass-gatherings of more than 500 people, they went ahead with their St Patrick's Day plans.
Social media posts seen by Newshub showed pictures of students dressed up in green before the event. One captioned "on our way to catch corona".
The DJ of the event also reportedly told partygoers "you're all getting f**king coronavirus".
Reacting to the party, Margaret Perley, the university's head of student health said, "We were trying to stress yesterday [Monday] that we don't want to add more workload to the health resources because they're going to be very stretched.
"So it's thinking carefully ahead of events planned in the future and the impact they may have on others, not the students themselves," Perley told Radio New Zealand on Tuesday.
"We really need to minimise spread and mass gatherings are not a way to minimise mass spread."
