Martha's Vineyard Schools Receiving Rapid Coronavirus Tests

MARTHA'S VINEYARD, MA—Rapid coronavirus testing supplies will be distributed to 134 Massachusetts school districts, and Swansea 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.

"These are the self-contained tests that will be located in the nurse's office of each school and can be used to test symptomatic staff and students," said Superintendent of Martha's Vineyard Public Schools Matthew T. D'Andrea in a letter to parents. "I don't know yet how many test kits we will receive. I am working with the Health and Safety Committee to complete the next step in this testing program."

Martha's Vineyard schools have had nine COVID-19 cases as of November 17. As of November 19, the Island has had a total of approximately 200 confirmed COVID-19 cases.

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

"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 Riley 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."

Patch reporter Jimmy Bentley contributed to this article.