Washington Expands Support For COVID Testing At Schools

Seattle WA

03 September, 2021

2:39 PM

Description

OLYMPIA, WA — With hundreds of thousands of students kicking off a new school year back in the classroom, Washington health officials are working to boost COVID-19 testing programs at schools across the state. "Soon schools across Washington will be teeming with students for the first time in more than a year," the Washington State Department of Health wrote Thursday. "Supporting the effort to get students back into schools, and formulating plans to help keep our schools open has been a priority for the [DOH] for months. This year, back-to-school occurs in the midst of a COVID-19 surge in all regions of the state. So, the strategy for a health return includes layered protections: encouraging vaccines for all eligible students, requiring staff to be vaccinated, near-universal masking, and regular COVID-19 testing at schools." Related: As School Begins, WA Works To Keep Students COVID Safe Washington's 322 public school districts and its private, tribal and independent schools can select from a menu of screening options through the "Learn to Return" program, including PCR and rapid antigen tests. According to the program's website, more than 300 districts had already made contact and 105 testing programs were successfully launched between March and Sept. 1. "School-based COVID testing should help give parents peace of mind," said Dr. Umair Shah, state Secretary of Health. "Combining testing with broad vaccination, and then adding the four W's of washing hands, wearing masks, watching distance, and using WA Notify is the best possible approach as we restart full-time, in-person learning." Learn more about the Learn to Return program online.