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Ministry Update On Back To School Covid Testing

The Ministry of Education advised “that all school students and staff were Covid tested last week, with verified antigen tests, permitting all negative students to return to in-school learning this upcoming week.”

A Government spokesperson said, “Middle and Senior school students will resume twice-weekly antigen testing.

“All website forms have been updated to improve data collection and management. The Ministry of Education wishes to stress that parents’ and staff’s personal data will not be shared with anyone outside of the Covid-19 Unit.

“Currently, submission rates for antigen testing are approximately 57% for students and 50% for staff since introduced in January 2022. The Ministry would like to see these numbers increase to a minimum of 80% of both students and staff.

“We are looking forward to activities like in-person sports days, field trips, graduations, school events, PTA meetings, mask-wearing relaxation, etc. that will be allowed with the Schools Phases revisions being worked on currently and will be announced next week. However, participation rates in the weekly screening will also be a factor to allow individual schools to take advantage of these revisions.

“Commencing the week of February 28th, Preschool and Primary students will return to weekly saliva screening. Before the move to antigen testing, the saliva screening programme saw a favourable more than 80% participation rate in schools.

“The Ministry of Education thanks our partners at MDL who will provide the Saliva Screening program service to our younger learners.”

Minister of Education Diallo Rabain stated, “Our youngest students must be in the classroom to limit the disruption to the broader community. I am pleased that our entire education team and stakeholders are working collaboratively to ensure the best outcome for our students. I want to welcome all of our staff and students back to school. I encourage everyone to stay safe, and don’t forget to submit your results.”

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