Mass. updating school COVID-19 testing recommendations

BOSTON — The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education is updating its COVID-19 testing recommendations for schools.

DESE says schools no longer have to test all close contacts of someone who tests positive for the virus.

Starting January 31, Massachusetts schools can offer rapid COVID-19 tests to students and staff who want to participate in this new program.

This will replace the ‘Test and Stay’ program that’s been in effect over the last year.

DESE released this new report which shows as of January 9, more than 500,000 Test and Stay tests had been conducted; 98.6% were negative.

That means most students who were in close contact with someone who had COVID-19 never actually got the virus while in school.

DESE says overall this shows how safe in-person learning is since the positivity rate is lower than the overall rate for the state.

After learning these results, the state now recommends only testing students and staff who show symptoms of COVID-19 instead of testing close contacts.

Any school district that wants to participate in the new testing program needs to respond to the state’s survey anytime between now and April 1.

Then the state will start sending rapid COVID-19 tests to those districts.

Some staff will start getting those tests as early as this week, and students can start getting those rapid tests next week.

Then those schools will require students and staff to test once a week.

The state is hoping this new method will limit the spread of COVID-19 in a more effective way.

These changes will do away with contact tracing in schools and focus more on testing students who actually have symptoms.

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