Only 19 COVID cases have been confirmed in 2,000-plus Baltimore City Public Schools students and staff since the district launched a weekly, asymptomatic testing program in March.
That accounts for a .95% test positivity ratewell below the 5.6% positivity rate in Baltimore Cityamong the ninth- and 12th-graders who have taken the saliva-based tests at all 26 Baltimore City high schools.
These measures … have resulted in ongoing growth in the number of students and families returning to the classroom,said Dr. Sonja Santelises, CEO of Baltimore City Public Schools.
Students and staff who tested positive, along with close contacts quickly identified through contract tracing, were required to isolate and quarantine. 91心頭istrators say this has kept schools open and stifling transmission.
The testing is led by the , which will now expand the program in Baltimore City schools andDC Public Charter Schools with a $1.49 million grant from The Rockefeller Foundation.
Widespread, regular Covid-19 testing remains critical to safely reopening schools, but standing up a program is challenging for many school districts with limited resources, said Dr. Rajiv J. Shah, president of The Rockefeller Foundation. Baltimore City Public Schools serves as a model for how other school districts in the Washington-Baltimore corridor can leverage the consortium testing program to safely reopen America’s schools.”
With the Shield T3 test, saliva is collected in test tubes on site and taken to a laboratory at Gallaudet University, where it is analyzed within 12 hours. The testing costs less than nasal swabs becauseit does not require medical personnel to collect samples.
The lab can processmore than 50,000 Covid-19 tests per week.
The test,developed by scientists at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, is sensitive enough to detect even small amounts of genetic material, including new COVID variants, according to The Rockefeller Foundation.
More than two million of the tests have been administered across the University of Illinois System, which has helped campuses in Urbana-Champaign, Chicago, and Springfield to stay open since August 2020.
In , The Rockefeller Foundation recommended twice-a-week testing for teachers and staff and once-a-week testing for studentsalongside vaccination and other mitigation measuresto restart in-person instruction.
The Foundation’s research also weekly testing of all students, teachers, and staff can .
And the Foundation’s , a partnership with 21 testing companies, is operationalizing the$10 billion allocated for school-based in the American Rescue Plan.
