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FARGO, ND (Valley News Live) – The North Dakota Department of Health, with support from local public health and the North Dakota National Guard, will deploy free rapid tests for teachers, staff and K-12 administrators this week as part of a pilot project to identify asymptomatic cases of COVID-19 so they can quickly isolate and prevent the virus from spreading.
Testing of Kindergarten to Grade 12 teachers, staff and administrators will begin this week in Fargo and West Fargo school districts.
Health officials say testing is highly recommended in order to proactively isolate positive cases and ensure the safety of educational spaces for students and staff. Staff members who work closely with students are strongly encouraged to participate weekly.
Testing is limited to K-12 personnel; students will not be tested.
The plan is to test teachers, staff and administrators every week until December 31, 2020.
“These rapid tests are a new tool in the toolkit that will help us break the chain of transmission by helping to identify the silent epidemic of COVID positive individuals spreading the virus unknowingly,” said Dr Joshua Wynne , the state’s chief health strategist and dean of the University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences.
“Deploying these rapid tests in K-12 school districts will help quickly identify and isolate asymptomatic carriers and prevent the spread of the virus to bend the curve in the right direction, while also helping schools to stay open or resume in-person learning ”. said Governor Doug Burgum, who has met with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention three times, including CDC Director Dr Robert Redfield twice, as the rapid testing strategy was developed. “Performing these tests before and after Thanksgiving will also provide information and help us refine our strategy to reduce the spread of the community, thereby protecting our health care capacity.”
“We know that most students are best served by in-person learning where they receive essential academic, social, nutritional and physical supports to help them learn and grow,” said State Superintendent Kirsten Baesler. “Our schools consistently implement and use strong mitigation strategies to keep in-person learning safe and slow the community spread of COVID-19. Testing asymptomatic teachers, staff, and administrators will quickly isolate positive cases, adding an extra layer to the foundation of cohesive and strong mitigation strategies. “
Weekly testing will use the Abbott BinaxNOW point-of-care antigen testing, which can diagnose coronavirus infection in as little as 15 minutes. The US Department of Health and Human Services will allocate 220,000 BinaxNOW tests to North Dakota by the end of the year as part of the 150 million units purchased by the federal government in August.
The North Dakota Department of Health works with local public health units and school districts to coordinate testing. Weekly rapid tests for teachers, staff and administrators are expected to be rolled out to other school districts in the coming days and weeks.
Health officials say rapid tests are not a substitute for basic measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19, including physical distancing, wearing a mask, washing hands and avoiding indoor spaces cluttered.
Copyright 2020 KVLY. All rights reserved.
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