‘No scientific basis’ in school Covid test plan
Pupils with positive result from a school swab will be banned from class even if dependable test is negative
Children who receive false positives when tested at school will still be banned from the classroom for 10 days and told to self-isolate, the Government has said. Ministers have been accused of pursuing a “ridiculous” policy on lateral flow tests that has “no scientific basis” and will result in youngsters missing out on school unnecessarily. It comes as millions of children returned to classrooms yesterday for the first time in months.
CHILDREN who receive false positives when tested at school will still be banned from the classroom for 10 days and told to self-isolate, the Government has said.
Ministers have been accused of pursuing a “ridiculous” policy on lateral flow tests that has “no scientific basis” and will result in youngsters missing out on school “unnecessarily”.
It comes as millions of children returned to classrooms yesterday for the first time in months.
Parents and teachers spoke of their joy at returning to school, with one head teacher saying his school “feels alive again”.
David Mcpartlin at Flakefleet Primary School in Fleetwood, Lancs, said: “There’s been a real buzz about the place and a sense of excitement this morning. Today feels like the start of the end of Covid, like we are coming out the end of a very long dark tunnel.”
Meanwhile, parents at Ide Primary School near Exeter, Devon described how happy their children were to be back at school. “My youngest has not seen any of his friends or spoken to them for months,” one mother said. “He has missed seeing them every day.”
Pupils at secondary schools have been asked to have three rapid antigen tests at school during the first fortnight, followed by another at home. After that they will be given two tests per week to take at home, all of which are voluntary.
But last night the Government’s testing policy risked descending into chaos after remarks by a Department for Education (DFE) minister sparked confusion.
Vicky Ford, the children’s minister, suggested that students who test positive from a lateral flow test – whether taken at home or at school – will have to self-isolate whether or not they have a subsequent negative result from a PCR test, which gives more accurate results.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman was forced to clarify that only students who get positive lateral flow tests at home and then take a follow-up PCR test that is negative will be allowed to return to school.
Wes Streeting, the shadow schools minister, accused ministers of being “worse than useless”.
“What hope is there for schools, parents and pupils when ministers in the DFE can’t get their basic facts right?” he said on Twitter. However, Government officials clarified that students who get a positive lateral flow test at school will be banned from lessons for 10 days even if they get a subsequent negative PCR test. Prof Jon Deeks, an expert in biostatistics at Birmingham University, said there is “no rationale” for this, particularly as cases in the community are falling, which means a greater proportion of lateral flow tests will be false positives.
He told The Daily Telegraph: “The total number of false positives will be constant, but the number of true positives will go down because there is less of the disease. So the probability of a false positive increases as the disease gets rarer, and I don’t think the Government ministers and advisers understand this.”
He said it was “ridiculous” not to allow a follow-up PCR test to override a lateral flow result taken at school, adding: “There is no scientific basis for this. You will be restricting freedoms and keeping children out of school completely unnecessarily.”
A snap poll by the Association of School and College Leaders found that 54 per cent of heads reported a take-up of between 90 and 100 per cent for the rapid Covid tests.
Nearly a quarter saw a take-up of between 80 and 89 per cent while takeup was below 60 per cent in only six per cent of schools, the survey found.
The poll, of more than 700 head teachers in England, suggests nearly three-quarters had more than 90 per cent of pupils wear face masks in class.
One Government source acknowledged it is “inevitable” there will be an increase in the numbers of cases as schools go back.
Prof Calum Semple, a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), said a small rise in the R number – the reproduction rate – is less important than the absolute numbers being admitted to hospital and intensive care.