Barnstable Schools Receiving Rapid Coronavirus Tests From State

BARNSTABLE, MA — Rapid coronavirus testing supplies will be distributed to 134 Massachusetts school districts, and Barnstable was one of the districts selected for the program, state education officials announced Wednesday.

The supplies are expected to be sent to school districts, charters and special education collaboratives by early December, said Jeffrey Riley, the commissioner of the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Barnstable School Health Director Alicia Bryants said the district expects the new testing supplies to be limited, but they should play a key role in helping the district identify cases and get contract tracing rolling faster.

"We're excited to be included in it anyway we can tamp down on the lack of testing we have on the Cape," Bryant said.

Qualifying schools had to meet several requirements, including offering some in-person learning, having the ability to report test results to the Department of Public Health and training for staff administering the rapid tests.

"By testing students and teachers and getting results within minutes, we will be able to identify infected individuals and their close contacts more quickly and to help stop any spread," Riley said in a news conference Wednesday.

The voluntary program provided test kits to schools at no cost to the districts. Riley said the program uses the Abbott BinaxNOW rapid testing system, which was distributed to Massachusetts and other states under a contract with the federal government.

The rapid tests deliver results in about 15 minutes, but both Riley and Ryan noted they can be less reliable than a traditional COVID-19 tests that gets sent to a lab. This means the tests will only be used on students and staff who are already showing COVID-19 symptoms. A parent or guardian will also have to give consent for their child to take the test.

"Under federal guidelines, at this time, the Abbott BinaxNOW test is not to be used for broad-scale asymptomatic (testing) in schools and students, parents and staff should be aware that an antigen test result are not considered at this time diagnostic," Riley said. "Results are probable and confirmation of a person's COVID-19 status requires a PCR test."

Bryant said students and staff should still not go to school if they have symptoms. The rapid tests are only for those that develop COVID-19 symptoms while at school.

As of Tuesday, 25 in-person Barnstable students have tested positive for the coronavirus since Sept. 16. Fifteen of those students are in isolation. Six staff members have tested positive for the virus, and one is in isolation.

Bryant said she's happy with the protocols at Barnstable Public Schools and said so far, any cases have come from gatherings outside of school. The schools have not had any superspreader events, she said.

"We've had several cases, but we have seen no school transmission," Bryant said. "We've had a few classes be put into quarantine out of caution, but none came back positive after."