Logistical issues might delay start of school COVID-19 testing programs until after Christmas

Several districts need to apply for special licenses to dispose of biowaste and come up with plans to distribute the testing kits

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WOLO) — Schools across South Carolina are now able to test students and staff for COVID-19, but some districts might not administer tests until next semester.

Districts throughout the state are still working on the logistics of their testing procedures.

Last week, Governor Henry McMaster signed an executive order that called for the distribution of 220,000 rapid testing kits to school districts across the state.

“If there’s a smart way to keep the schools open and get the children in school where they desperately need to be, then that’s what we need to be trying to do,” said Gov. McMaster at a press conference November 19.

The South Carolina Department of Education says about half of South Carolina’s school districts have agreed to participate in the program.

With several schools lacking a full-time nurse, some may have challenges with administering tests on top of their other responsibilities.

“It’s not like when you go to some of these community test sites, they have multiple people. They have someone getting the consent, they have someone labeling the tests, so that’s going to be the biggest barrier for school districts is manpower,” said Dawn MacAdams, the Lead Nurse for Richland School District Two.

Richland School Districts One and Two are still working on their plans and ironing out some of the logistical issues with distributing the rapid test kits.

Some of those issues include securing the necessary licenses to distribute bio-waste, determining which students and staff could take a test, and ironing out how the tests will be given out to the schools.

MacAdams says it could be after Christmas when testing in schools can realistically begin, but also says it might not be the catalyst for schools to come back five days a week.

“We’re already excluding students with the symptoms that we can test for, and sending them home and recommending they get tested, so getting tested is not going to change the number of students that we see that are symptomatic and we send home,” MacAdams said.

DHEC says dating back to the beginning of August, there have been 4,000 COVID-19 cases in schools across South Carolina.