Calls For Rapid Antigen Test Rollout In Schools As Closures Continue

More than 270 schools and 300 childcare centres in NSW have closed due to COVID-19 cases in the past month alone. Children have been forced to quarantine and miss more school, prompting calls for rapid testing to be rolled out as an alternative solution.

According to new Doherty Institute modelling, testing students with a rapid antigen test before their school day, limits virus spread just as well as quarantining an entire class if a classmate has tested positive. With this ‘test to stay’ solution, students would only miss school if they returned a positive result. So far, the department has procured 500,000 tests with the option of another 500,000.