Rapid testing has been rolled out to Staff at Wirral schools as measures continue to help support schools in remaining COVID-secure.
For primary schools, the lateral flow tests will be available for staff to test themselves at home twice a week. Lateral flow tests are a quick way of testing for coronavirus symptoms and return a result in about 30 minutes.
Secondary school staff have been testing their staff members twice-weekly on the school premises for a few weeks now, using Lateral Flow testing. This has allowed for the early detection of any staff members that have had the virus, but without symptoms.
Councillor Wendy Clements, Chair of the Families and Wellbeing Committee, said, “Throughout the pandemic, cases in schools have remained low, but this is a really welcome step in our efforts to detect the virus.
“This should give parents, carers, and school staff peace of mind that we’re putting any and all measures in place to keep the number of positive cases down in our schools.”
Alongside the expansion of testing for school staff, vaccinations are being arranged beginning with staff in special schools. Due to their proximity to extremely vulnerable children, staff in special schools are being given priority for the vaccine. The wider school workforce will be offered vaccination in the next phase of the national programme, which will cover occupational groups that cannot work from home.