COVID-19. The deadly virus that is changing people’s life day after day. Many schools in the area have had students participate in remote learning. However, Lakota West has kept its doors open, and in an attempt to keep people healthy, we have adopted a COVID-19 trial. This trial will last for two weeks. With the hope of having students quarantined come back to school earlier than fourteen days, the trial will frequently test students exposed to the virus. Students now are able to stay focused on staying healthy.
The West Press reached out to Ben Brown to discover how the district came about with the idea to have COVID-19 trials. “The 10 school districts in Ohio thought about having the test and the superintendent signed off to have the COVID-19 trials run”. He also mentioned that now the trial can bring people back to school quicker rather than having them quarantined for two weeks. Students get tested Mondays at eleven and Wednesday at eight in the gymnasium.
We also asked Principal Brown if the trials will show a significant decrease in testing. He responded. “ Yes, it will have a part in decreasing cases. The best part is that students will be able to return to school earlier. On Halloween weekend, we had a huge outbreak in people quarantined so with this, I think we won’t send out the same amount of people”.
Mr. Brown also addressed the type of test the students will receive, noting that students will not participate in a full-blown test. Instead of having the full test students will participate in nose swabs for their test.”Unlike the regular COVID-19 test where you get results in 24-72 hours, with the nose swabs you can get the result back in twenty minutes. With the test not being like the regular test, we questioned Mr. Brown on the accuracy of such tests. He responded, “There can be a risk of getting a false test. With the regular test also, medical people I have spoken to say that one out of every five tests can be false.”
With that being said Lakota West now hopes with the new trial that cases can go down and that quarantined students can go back to school earlier. The school will benefit from having this program and should see a decrease in student quarantines.
