NORTH CAROLINA, USA — As more and more students return back to school for in-person learning, the federal government wants to make sure are even more rapid coronavirus test kits available in schools all across the country.
With the help of $10 billion from President Joe Biden’s coronavirus relief package, funding for these kits is now a priority. The money will be allocated across each state and will be used to cover testing and other school COVID-19 screening tools.
Since the start of the pandemic, South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster has said his goal was to get all students back into schools five days a week as quickly and safely as possible.
“By following official COVID-19 procedures and protocol schools can be operated safely,” McMaster said previously
In Chester County, South Carolina, the school district already began using rapid tests throughout school buildings earlier this year. Students must first have their parents' permission before the school nurse can conduct the COVID-19 test. Rapid results are available within 15 mins.
North Carolina is now beginning to roll out a similar COVID-19 testing plan. Those state officials are offering nearly two million rapid tests to schools that opt-in to particpate. Their plan is to test teachers and staff weekly. They will also test students and adults who show symptoms or may have been exposed to someone with the virus.
Their hope is these testing tools will make the return to classrooms as safe as possible.
“I think we all want the same thing: to open our schools to in-person instruction for all students and to do it safely,” North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper previously.