The latest round of rapid coronavirus testing in Ottawa schools found zero cases among more than 1,000 staff, students and family members, the local public health unit says.
Ottawa Public Health has partnered with local schools and the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario to provide rapid antigen testing at community clinics for the past four weekends looking for asymptomatic cases of COVID-19.
OPH selects schools in neighbourhoods with higher COVID-19 rates for the testing, and sometimes includes those with symptoms, high-risk contacts of cases as well as family members of staff and students.
At the most recent clinic, held at St. Patrick’s High School on Feb. 20 and 21, 1,004 people connected with 28 schools in the area registered for testing.
Not one of the tests from that weekend came back positive, according to OPH’s latest report on the testing.
When one of the rapid antigen tests does come back positive, the result is confirmed with a PCR lab test.
So far, the rapid testing strategy has found 20 confirmed cases connected with local schools.
The previous weekend saw 1,904 people register for testing, with only one student’s results coming back positive.
The previous two weeks saw fewer people present for testing but discovered a higher number of cases.
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