Scotland’s education secretary, Shirley-Anne Somerville, is exploring how to ensure that Covid “testing is as high as we would like it to be” in the new school year.
She wants to increase uptake of the optional lateral flow tests available in schools, she said today.
In a bid to stem the spread of the coronavirus when Scottish schools returned following the post-Christmas lockdown, school staff and secondary students were offered twice-weekly Covid home-testing kids.
However, official figures show that in the week up to 13 June just 4.3 per cent of students in S3 to 6 took a lateral flow test, whilst 6.1 per cent of students in S1-3 did. The figure for school staff was 28.1 per cent.
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Overall, since schools started returning, just 30.6 per cent of senior students have taken at least one test and 18.8 per cent of students in S1-3.
Drive to increase school Covid testing
Meanwhile, over a third of school staff have never taken a test, according to the figures, with 65.4 per cent accessing at least one test.
Despite the low uptake, since February lateral flow tests have identified 1,003 positive coronavirus cases among school staff and pupils, as confirmed by the more reliable PCR tests, which are undertaken when a lateral flow test gives a positive result.
Ms Somerville said it was likely that the true number of lateral flow tests being taken by school staff and students was being underreported because negative results were not being recorded. Nevertheless, she said the government was “very keen to press the issue”.
Responding to a question from Labour education spokesperson Michael Marra in the Scottish Parliament today, Ms Somerville said teaching unions and councils were working hard to encourage members and staff to take up the tests.
She added: “We are already looking at what needs to be done to ensure that testing is as high as we would like it to be as we move into the next academic year - but it is something I am keeping an exceptionally close eye on because I would also like to see the figures be higher than they are.”
Mass testing makes it easier to find people who may be unaware that they are infected with Covid-19, which means they can be told to isolate and therefore be prevented from spreading the virus.
It is estimated that individuals with the coronavirus who do not have symptoms make up around a third of all cases.
