REGINA — As school heads back to classrooms within the week, Saskatchewan families with students under the age of 12 in select schools will be provided with self-testing COVID kits, as part of a new pilot program from public health.
The pilot seeks to provide testing options specifically to students ineligible to be vaccinated at this time, in addition to the individual safety measures that school divisions may have in place.
The self-testing rapid antigen kits provide results within 15 minutes, and are expected to aid in the screening of students who may be COVID-positive but show no symptoms.
A total of 24 schools will participate, to be determined following consultation with school divisions and local medical health officers.
Schools chosen for the pilot will be following consideration of factors such as vaccination coverage, active cases in the region, hospitalizations and school outbreaks.
Public health plans to include more schools in the future, as the program evolves.
All rapid test results are expected to be confirmed with a follow-up lab-based PCR test, said public health.
