Pre-christmas mass screening of students ‘not compulsory’
A MASS testing plan for universities will not be legally enforceable, the Government has confirmed.
Earlier this week, the Department for Education announced that students were to be sent straight home from university after lockdown so they can spend Christmas with their families, with all lectures and classes to be moved online by Dec 9.
It comes after The Daily Telegraph revealed that the Government intends to roll out mass testing at universities so that students with a negative result can return home straight away.
Those who test positive will have to remain on campus while they isolate for 10 days and they would then be free to travel home.
However, the department has since confirmed the tests will not be mandatory. The “pre-end-of-term testing”, for those who wish to participate, will take place between Nov 30 and Dec 6, according to NHS Test and Trace.
A minister suggested that universi
ties with higher numbers of ethnic minority students would be given priority coronavirus tests.
Universities with a high proportion of black and minority ethnic (BAME) s t udents will be t he s ubject of “targeted testing”, after statistics revealed earlier this year that BAME individuals are disproportionately dying from coronavirus.
Michelle Donelan, the universities minister, said: “We are targeting testing in the highest-risk areas, the universities that may have had the highest rates of Covid, also those with the highest proportion of vulnerable students such as BAME.”
The Welsh government yesterday unveiled a similar plan, asking all students to sign up for the Lateral Flow Test pilot from their university if they plan on going home. The self-administered test, using a nose and throat swab, delivers results in 30 minutes.
The mass testing comes after the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies voiced fears students might spread Covid around the country.
The University and College Union said the Government’s tight timescale for a mass movement of students was “riddled with holes” and “raises as many questions as it answers”.