The Erie County Health Department will now make it possible for school-age children and teens to get Covid-19 testing results within 15 minutes.
Health Commissioner Dr. Gale Burstein said Wednesday that the county will now offer rapid testing by appointment to any students up through high school, as well as school staff, who participate in on-site school instruction and show symptoms associated with Covid-19.
The new program comes in response to parent concerns that students who attend school and show symptoms associated with Covid-19 are forced to miss days of in-school instruction while awaiting test results and being quarantined at home.
"We want to help kids who are able to be in the classroom, and the teachers that are able to come to school and teach, to get back to school, if they have symptoms," Burstein said.
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The county has six rapid-testing machines, about the size of a large toaster, that are on loan to the county from the state. The machines can produce results from nasal swab specimens in 15 minutes.
Initially, the Health Department intended to keep them on standby for deployment during potential outbreaks or hotspots. But the county will now be making the machines available to all students in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade, as well as school staff, who participate in classroom instruction in school buildings.
School staff who work in buildings, not just teachers, would also be eligible for the rapid tests.
The rapid tests would not be available to students who are learning remotely or are only participating on-site in school sports, Burstein said. Students must physically attend school at least once a week.
Students already in quarantine also would not be eligible for the rapid tests because they are not permitted to be in school for 14 days regardless of whether their tests are positive or negative, she added.
"This is just to get people back in school if they don't have Covid-19," she said.
Rapid testing machines will be located in the north, south and central parts of the county.
In order to take advantage of the testing, appointments must be made by calling the county's Covid-19 hotline at (716) 858-2929. Appointments will be offered on weekday mornings on a first-come, first-served basis.
The county will book rapid-test appointments up to two days in advance. If the wait is longer, the test seeker will be referred to standard county Covid-19 testing, which gives results within several days.
The county can complete about 100 rapid tests per day, Burstein said.
If a student or school staffer is found to be negative, they will have papers certifying that they tested negative and are free to return to school right away.
If they are found to be positive, then county contact-tracers with a special school-focused epidemiology team will begin an investigation and the individual would be placed in isolation, Burstein said.
