Fri 23 Jul 2021 01.01 EDT
Scientists have recommended daily tests for students who come into contact with Covid cases at secondary schools and colleges after finding that it prevents the spread of infection as much as sending whole bubbles home to isolate.
Researchers at Oxford University compared the two approaches in 201 schools and colleges between April and June this year. Daily testing with lateral flow devices appeared to marginally reduce symptomatic infections in the schools, but had a greater impact on lost education, reducing the number of absences by an estimated 20% to 39%.
The results of the trial, commissioned by the government, suggests that switching to daily lateral flow tests instead of sending contacts of Covid cases home to self-isolate for 10 days may help keep students in school after the summer without exacerbating the spread of the virus.
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A new study by researchers at Queen Mary University of London, University of Oxford, Institute for Advanced Studies, Vienna, and the Medical University of Graz, has found that lateral flow tests detect Covid-19 with similar accuracy to laboratory-based PCR tests, providing they are used at the onset of infection and soon after symptoms start.
Lateral flow tests are cheaper and produce a result in just 30 minutes - much faster than the time it takes to receive a PCR test result, which can take 1-3 days. The finding could be pivotal to national strategies looking to tackle the next phase of the pandemic, especially as timely and rapid testing becomes even more important once the current restrictions lift in England.