Hastings Prince Edward District School Board director Sean Monteith addressed questions about possible in-school COVID-19 testing at the school board trustees’ meeting Monday.
Monteith stressed that testing would be voluntary, and that they would be more gentle, slightly less invasive nasal swab tests, with the possibility of moving towards saliva tests.
“The testing is voluntary. It is completely voluntary, so nobody is going to have forceable testing, meaning children, done or administered to them in a school. Informed consent, or required consent, not implied consent, required consent on the part of the parents or guardians would also be required.”
He explained that the tests wouldn’t require students to sit out of school for days, and that their tests would have results in as soon as 15 minutes and as late as two hours. Monteith also explained that in piloting this with the Ministry of Education, they would select three schools across the district to have school-based testing.
He explained that having school-based testing would alleviate stress on local COVID-19 testing sites as well as alleviating concerns about COVID-19 being in local schools.
