(Canadian Press)

By rdnewsNOW staff

Two Calgary schools first up

Alberta launches pilot program for rapid testing in schools

Mar 11, 2021 | 4:25 PM

Starting in mid-March, rapid COVID-19 tests will be offered at two Calgary schools to help assess rapid on-site testing in schools.

Education Minister Adriana LaGrange says more than 100,000 kits will be made available for this pilot program. Rapid tests will be offered every week for up to three weeks to screen students with no symptoms.

One school from both the Calgary Board of Education and the Calgary Catholic School District will participate. The specific locations have not yet been selected.

The province says results from the first three weeks of the pilot will inform how the pilot program can be successfully expanded to include more schools and regions in the weeks ahead.

“We are piloting rapid testing in schools with outbreaks as part of our commitment to safely continue in-person learning,” said LaGrange. “Rapid testing can possibly offer a close to real-time check on the situation in an entire school experiencing an outbreak. Every day a student is able to attend school in-person is a win during the pandemic.”

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A testing team will set up at each participating school. Staff must sign a consent form and students must have a consent form signed by their parents or guardians to get tested.

This pilot program will help to determine the effectiveness of using rapid screening tests to manage outbreaks in schools. It will also evaluate the benefits of using rapid tests to reduce the risk of transmission in schools experiencing outbreaks by quickly identifying individuals who may have COVID-19 but do not have symptoms.

Alberta Health, Alberta Education and participating school boards will work together to determine which schools experiencing outbreaks will participate in the pilot program.

Students and staff who do not have symptoms, and have not been identified as close contacts, can get tested while attending school.

Rapid tests results may be available at the school within an hour.

Students and staff who get a positive result after a rapid test will not be able to return to class and will isolate.

Health Minister Tyler Shandro said Thursday that rapid tests are being deployed in a variety of other settings, including health-care sites, the oil and gas sector and workers in industries such as banking and transportation.

A total of 924,000 rapid tests will be deployed.