Schools: Coronavirus

(asked on 22nd January 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the mass asymptomatic testing in schools and colleges, what support his Department is providing to schools to carry out serial testing to all close contacts after finding a positive case of covid-19.


Answered by
Nick Gibb Portrait
Nick Gibb
This question was answered on 1st February 2021

The Department has currently paused daily contact testing, previously known as serial testing, in all but a small number of secondary schools and colleges, where it will continue alongside detailed evaluation. This is following updated advice from NHS Test and Trace and Public Health England which concluded that, in light of the higher prevalence and rates of transmission of the new variant of the virus, further evaluation work is required to make sure that daily contact testing is achieving its aim of breaking chains of transmission.

We will be working closely with the small number of secondary schools and colleges that will be continuing daily contact testing as part of the evaluation.

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