Public
Health England and NHS Test and Trace have released a new
position on daily contact testing as a replacement for
self-isolation in secondary schools and colleges.
The government has accepted their recommendation to pause this
programme. There is no change to the main rollout of regular
testing in schools and colleges.
A government spokesperson said:
“There is no change to the main rollout of regular testing using
rapid lateral flow tests in schools and colleges which is already
proving beneficial in finding teachers and students with
coronavirus who do not have symptoms.
“Testing is a vital part of our plan to supress this virus, and
we are consistently guided by expert advice on the best way to
structure the programme. Following pilots and on the advice of
NHS Test and Trace, daily contact testing as a replacement to
self-isolation was rolled out to keep children in school as much
as possible.
“NHS Test and Trace and Public Health England have reviewed their
advice, and concluded that in light of the higher prevalence and
rates of transmission of the new variant, further evaluation work
is required to make sure it is achieving its aim of breaking
chains of transmission and reducing cases of the virus in the
community.
“We are therefore pausing daily contact testing in all but a
small number of secondary schools and colleges, where it will
continue alongside detailed evaluation.
“Daily contact testing, used as an alternative to up to a whole
class having to isolate if a positive case is detected, continues
to have the potential to be a valuable tool to keep more young
people and staff at school, the best place for students’
development and wellbeing. We will continue pilots to gather
further data and to build the evidence base for the programme.
“Regular testing of staff will increase to twice weekly as
further reassurance and to help break chains of transmission
during this period.”
Further info:
- The initial pilots were conducted in schools in November and
December. They illustrated the potential benefit of a daily
contact testing programme in schools. For example:
-
- At one secondary school, daily contact testing in two
separate years occurred after two separate cases were
identified through NHS Test and Trace; no positive cases were
identified and all children remained in school.
- In another separate event, daily contact testing
commenced of close contacts of a Year 11 pupil after a
positive PCR test. On the first day of testing 7 cases were
identified, 6 were in the same tutor group; one additional
case was identified 2 days later and the remainder of the
year remained in school without further cases over the 10 day
period.
- At another school, on their first screening round, cases
were identified in one year group; subsequent daily testing
detected further cases on day 2 and 3 of serial testing
(therefore likely to have arisen prior to the daily testing)
and a decision was made to isolate the year group; no
additional cases were detected in others, suggesting that the
daily contact testing had enabled rapid isolation.
- On the basis of the findings from the schools pilots and
other modelling work, a decision was made by the government to
introduce daily contact testing alongside regular testing in
schools.
- Since then, a new variant VOC202012/0 has emerged and become
dominant in the UK. This variant has been shown to have increased
transmissibility, and there are also new more stringent national
restrictions.
- As a result, the public health advice has shifted and further
evaluation work is required to build the evidence base for daily
contact testing given the new circumstances.
