The Department of Health has completed the first round of COVID-19 tests on more than 4,700 children, teachers, and staff in the State’s public schools.
The tests are part of research scanning the school community for any asymptomatic COVID-19 cases.
Minister for Health, Roger Cook said the program was voluntary, with consent required from parents of child participants and all staff, and involved a swab being taken from the throat and nose.
“Nurses from the Child and Adolescent Health Service and WA Country Health Service have visited 28 metropolitan schools and 12 regional schools to conduct swab tests on a random sample of participants,” Mr Cook said.
“Tests processed by PathWest have detected no COVID-19, supporting the view that WA has no community transmission of COVID-19.”
He said participants ranged from four to 71 years of age, and 85 per cent were children. The swab testing at participating schools would be repeated at least twice more during Term Three.
“I am extremely pleased that swab testing has provided further reassurance that we have no COVID-19 infection in the community and thank the school community for their overwhelming support of this initiative,” the Minister said.
“All evidence we can gather to develop a comprehensive awareness of the impact of COVID-19 will position us to plan appropriately for our recovery out of COVID-19 and beyond.”
