Ontario expands take-home COVID-19 tests to schools across the province

Open this photo in gallery:

All students attending publicly funded schools in Ontario will have access to take-home COVID-19 test kits, and unvaccinated educators and staff will be required to undergo rapid testing three times a week instead of twice, the provincial government announced Thursday.

The government also introduced a “test-to-stay” program, which would deploy rapid tests to prevent schools from shutting down when COVID-19 infections rise among their student populations.

Education Minister Stephen Lecce told reporters the province is “taking nothing for granted,” and that the increased virus surveillance in schools would help reduce disruptions to classrooms.

“The goal of the new test-to-stay screening and the PCR take-home test is to keep kids safely in class learning, to reduce absenteeism, to prevent cases from entering our schools in the first place,” Mr. Lecce said.

The take-home polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests were already available in schools in Toronto and Ottawa through a program run by public-health units and local hospitals. Mr. Lecce said the tests, which are processed in labs, would be rolled out to schools across the province starting in mid-November, and that they would eliminate the need for families to book appointments at assessment centres.

Ontario to distribute rapid antigen tests to schools in areas with high COVID-19 transmission

Ontario to pilot at-home COVID-19 testing for students and staff at certain high schools

Students who develop symptoms or are identified as close contacts of infected people would pick up tests at their schools, administer the tests at home and then drop them off at community locations. Daycares were not included in the announcement.

Mr. Lecce also said that unvaccinated school staff will begin undergoing three rapid antigen COVID-19 tests a week, paid for by taxpayers, starting next month. These staff members are already required to be tested twice a week.

The regular asymptomatic testing excludes students. The province’s Chief Medical Officer of Health, Kieran Moore, has previously said there is no “additional value” to testing students because of low rates of community infections and concerns about false positives.

Students will instead be tested as part of the test-to-stay program, which will deploy rapid tests to schools where there are multiple cases of COVID-19. The program is voluntary for students. Those who are considered high-risk contacts would still need to self-isolate and take PCR tests, but other students would be able to administer rapid tests and continue attending class.

The government has not mandated COVID-19 vaccines for education workers, and Mr. Lecce said earlier this week that a mandate would mean “terminating 50,000 workers in the education space.” It is unclear how many staff members who are not fully vaccinated have had one dose of a vaccine, and the province has not said how many of them are occasional employees who have not reported to school boards this academic year.

A spokesperson for Mr. Lecce said 15 per cent of Ontario’s education workers have either attested to not being fully vaccinated or haven’t said either way. This includes teachers, principals, occasional staff and custodians. Some of them have claimed medical exemptions.

Ronald Cohn, the president and chief executive officer of Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children, said at Thursday’s news conference that students and staff having access to tests means schools will be able to operate with minimal disruptions. He added that children have been affected by school closings and other COVID-19 restrictions.

“It is therefore imperative that we do everything possible to keep our schools open during the current school year and ensure that we create an environment that is safe for students, teachers and all school staff,” Dr. Cohn said.

NDP education critic Marit Stiles said she had hoped to hear the government was mandating vaccines for education workers.

“I saw instead a very much delayed testing announcement, and then more tests for other education workers,” she said.

Sign up for the Coronavirus Update newsletter to read the day’s essential coronavirus news, features and explainers written by Globe reporters and editors.