The Centralia School District has launched a pilot COVID-19 testing program at Jefferson-Lincoln Elementary School, with plans to expand to other elementary schools and to Centralia High School.
Only asymptomatic teachers and staff at Jefferson-Lincoln are eligible for testing right now, but the plan is to begin diagnostic testing for students and staff alike once the program is firmly established.
“We’re hoping that’s another level of support as well as safety for both students and staff,” said Superintendent Dr. Lisa Grant at a March 24 school board meeting. “Our hope is that we can limit quarantine time and increase instructional time.”
Current protocol for staff and students requires them to quarantine for 10 days if they show one or more symptoms of COVID-19, such as a headache, sore throat, cough, fever or nausea.
“So if a student has a headache, that is one symptom, they must at this point quarantine,” said Grant. “If we can test and get a negative result, we can shorten that 10-day quarantine and get that student back learning more quickly, so that is our goal.”
The school district has secured grant funds and funding from the state Department of Health for oral fluid swab test kits from Curative Inc. and began administering them on a voluntary basis at Jefferson-Lincoln March 25.
Those who want a test sign up for an appointment and show up at the school nurse’s office at their scheduled time with a code to show they’ve properly registered for the test. The school nurse hands them the prepared swab, with instructions to cough three times into their elbow, swish around the saliva in their mouth and then swab their mouth for 20 seconds. The swab is then put into the appropriate tube, labeled and sent back to Curative for testing.
Eight people signed up for tests the first week and seven people signed up for tests the second week, according to Jefferson-Lincoln Principal Kelli DeMonte.
Results come back digitally within two days and are shared with the individual tested and with the school district.
Curative began offering the oral swab COVID-19 tests in March 2020 as an alternative to the nasal swab. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an alert in January 2021 warning patients and health care providers of the risk of false results, particularly false negatives, with Curative’s COVID-19 tests.
Since then, the FDA has only officially authorized Curative’s test for those who are symptomatic and under medical supervision.
The issue with false negatives wasn’t necessarily a problem with the test itself, the FDA reported, but improper administration of the test or administration of the test without medical supervision.
“We had a couple choices — we elected not to go with the nasal (swab),” Grant said.
Test administrators at Jefferson-Lincoln have been trained in the proper protocol for administering the oral swab and they directly supervise those receiving the test, actions which the FDA reports should reduce the risk of false negative results.
