Asymptomatic testing for COVID-19 is coming to area schools.
Deb Crawford is the Director of Education for the St. Clair Catholic District School Board.
“The Ministry has been in touch with our board and has let us know we’ll be undertaking asymptomatic targeted testing in approximately 5% of our elementary and secondary schools,” Crawford says. “The testing will be voluntary and we’ll begin probably at some point in the near future.”
An exact date for the testing to begin hasn’t been determined quite yet.
Both local boards will be using CLASS Shared School Services, the same group that organizes the student transportation and community use of schools, to make it easier to get information back and forth between the two systems.
“This is not a school board initiative, although it’s happening with our students. It might happen outside of the school day, including on weekends or in the evening,” says John Howitt, director of the Lambton Kent District School Board. “That 5% is weekly, so that’s 5% of our schools weekly, in the case of Lambton Kent, that’s three schools a week that would be eligible for the voluntary testing.”
Howitt says the target is 2% of all students attending face to face learning as well as staff.