Ontario to deploy rapid COVID-19 tests to all schools, increase testing for unvaccinated staff

All publicly funded schools in Ontario will receive take-home COVID-19 tests beginning in mid-November, Education Minister Stephen Lecce announced on Thursday.

“We are providing take-home PCR tests to all schools, for all grades, for both symptomatic students and close contact asymptomatic cases for students and staff,” Lecce said.

Students who come down with COVID-19 symptoms, or have been in close contact with a confirmed case, will be able to pick up a PCR test at their school. The completed test can then be dropped off “at convenient locations in the community,” the Ministry said.

Lecce stopped short of calling for mandatory vaccines for school staff, instead, saying the province would now require unvaccinated staff to undergo three COVID-19 tests per week, instead of two.

Earlier this week, Lecce warned that forcing staff to get vaccinated could result in mass firings of up to 50,000 education workers. Instead, he said multiple weekly tests should suffice to ensure safety.

Lecce also announced a new “test-to-stay” approach aimed at preventing entire schools from shutting down due to COVID-19 outbreaks. (More details below)

“While Ontario schools are safer places to learn supported by enhanced ventilation and high vaccination rates, we are taking nothing for granted,” Lecce said Thursday.

“By expanding access to testing and helping to better screen for COVID-19, we are protecting the progress we have made so far in keeping our schools safer for students and helping to limit the disruption to the school year.”

How does the test-to-stay program work? (Source: Ministry of Health)

• At schools with multiple cases of COVID-19, frequent rapid antigen testing will take place over a 10-day period for asymptomatic, unvaccinated students
• Confirmed cases/high-risk contacts in the school will still need to self-isolate and access PCR testing according to public health guidance
• Other students in the school will be able to continue attending school in person
• If a child tests positive for COVID-19, the parent or caregiver will be notified directly and will be advised of the next steps.

During Thursday’s announcement, Dr. Ronald Cohn, President and CEO of the Hospital for Sick Children, said additional testing is essential.

“Over the last 19 months, the physical, mental and developmental health of children have been significantly impacted by the pandemic restrictions,” Cohn said. “It is therefore imperative we do everything possible to keep schools open during the current school year and ensure that we keep an environment that is safe.”

Ontario NDP education critic Marit Stiles says the rollout of this program is too little too late.

“What is astonishing to me today is we are at the end of October. This government is talking just now about getting tests out to schools in November,” Stiles said, admitting that she is also concerned about the expanded requirement for testing among unvaccinated education workers.

“This testing each week has already been an enormous burden. Three times now is going to increase the administrative burden [and] it’s going to increase the toll being taken on our school boards.”

Take-home tests have already been made available at schools in Toronto, Ottawa and other health units under a pilot project. The province reported 80 new COVID-19 cases in Ontario schools on Thursday, with 75 of them among students.

The Children’s Health Coalition, representing children’s hospitals and health organizations such as SickKids and the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario, said recently that almost 80 per cent of cases in school-aged children have been traced to sources other than school outbreaks.

With files from The Canadian Press