Photo: Government of Alberta / Flickr

By Liam Verster

Rapid testing

Rapid COVID-19 tests to come to Grande Prairie schools

Apr 10, 2021 | 1:21 PM

The Alberta Government’s in-school rapid screening test program is being expanded, with Grande Prairie schools set to be included in the near future.

This plan builds on current in-school tests being administered at schools in Calgary.

The government will be distributing 440,000 rapid COVID-19 test kits to 300 schools in Grande Prairie, Edmonton, Calgary and Lethbridge.

Up to 220,00 students and school staff will be able to access the tests.

Junior and senior high schools will be prioritized based on a variety of factors, including the prevalence of COVID-19 in the school and community.

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Premier Jason Kenney says rapid tests can offer a real-time check on infections, and are an important tool to limit the spread of COVID-19 during the third wave.

“By using these screening tests in schools, we can potentially detect the virus quickly in students and staff who don’t have symptoms, allowing them to isolate and curb the spread of COVID-19,” says Kenney.

The program will expand to school divisions in Edmonton and Calgary first, then be rolled out at schools in Grande Prairie and Lethbridge.

Both the Grande Prairie Public School Division and the Grande Prairie and District Catholic Schools are participating in this program.

“Grande Prairie Public School Division is very appreciative of the efforts of the ministry to be proactive in their approach to the COVID-19 pandemic and is fully supportive of the expansion of the rapid testing initiative into our schools.” says John Lehners, board chair of the GPPSD in a release.

The Alberta Government is in the process of finding trained health care professionals to administer these tests, and the vendor that provides the test kits is ramping up production capabilities.

Education Minister Adriana LaGrange says the government is looking to find an additional test kit vendor, and once a contract is signed and they hire more trained staff, then more tests will become available.

While there still is no firm time line for when the tests will be available in Grande Prairie’s schools, the government is confident that testing should be expanding soon.

“We’re expecting that by mid-April that all school regions will have teams on the ground testing, and by mid-May that we would have 100 per cent capacity for all teams to be testing, and I believe that will be in all 300 schools,” says LaGrange.

LaGrange adds that they hope to expand this testing program to all schools in Alberta before the end of the school year.

The rapid tests will be optional for staff and students who do not have COVID-19 symptoms and have not been identified as a close contact with a positive case.

Staff and students that do test positive will not be allowed to return to class and will need to isolate. Those results will be treated as a preliminary result, and must be confirmed with a lab-based test conducted by Alberta Health Services.