K-12 Students To Be Tested For COVID In Schools
A health care worker administers a swab test for COVID-19.
A $147 million program to test kindergarten through 12-grade students for COVID in Alabama’s public and private schools is to begin within a few weeks, UAB, education and health officials said Monday.
Schools will test asymptomatic teachers, staff and students over age 12, with parental permission. Officials will use rapid antigen testing for quick results.
“It is voluntary, safe and free,” said Martha Wingate, chair of the Department of Health Care Organization and Policy in UAB’s School of Public Health.
Schools are responsible for reporting test results to the Alabama Department of Public Health.
“It is another tool to stem the flow of COVID,” Wingate said.
One school in the state, which Wingate did not identify, will launch the pilot program over the next few weeks.
Dr. Karen Landers of the Alabama Department of Public Health said the Delta variant of COVID is transmitted somewhat differently, and asymptomatic adults and children can spread the virus more easily.
“We understand that the Delta variant represents 90% of what we are seeing in Alabama, if not more. We need asymptomatic data as it is a way to reduce the risk in the school system,” Landers said. “And we need to get away from the understanding that children do not get sick and transmit COVID.”
If a student tests positive for COVID, he or she will be quarantined for 10 days, according to ADPH guidelines.
“It’s a further way to protect our children,“ Landers said. “That is why testing is such as great tool, and it augments keeping our kids safe.”
Wingate said the state Department of Education received positive responses when it polled school districts last spring to see if there was interest in in-school testing.
The $147 million that Alabama will get to test the state’s 800,000 K-12 students comes from President Biden’s $10 billion American Rescue Plan.
Trump is silent about Juneteenth on a day he previously honored as president
President Trump honored Juneteenth in each of his first four years as president, even before it became a federal holiday. On this year's Juneteenth holiday on Thursday, the president kept silent.
An appeals court backs Trump’s control of the California National Guard for now
The ruling maintains a block on a lower court's order that found President Trump was using the Guard in LA illegally in his immigration crackdown.
Federal judge says Trump administration can’t block state funding over immigration
The ruling comes ahead of a grant application deadline on June 20, which would have required states to agree to enforce the Trump administration's immigration agenda or lose transportation funding.
A former plantation becomes a space for healing, art and reparative history
Through a powerful blend of creative interpretation and ancestral memory, an Alabma town reckons with its past and begins to write a new chapter of shared truth.
Deadly listeria outbreak leads to recall of ready-to-eat fettuccine Alfredo meals
A nationwide listeria outbreak has been linked to 17 illnesses, and three deaths, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection.
As courts review military in L.A., immigration enforcement accelerates
Immigration enforcement speeds up in L.A. regardless of military presence
