MAHOMET — Close to 500 people were tested Tuesday as the Mahomet-Seymour school district rolled out its first day of rapid antigen testing for the coronavirus.
Superintendent Lindsey Hall said the testing for students and staff went well.
“It’s a free, quick, easy drive-thru,” she said. “We have an amazing crew of people who are handling it.”
The testing site remained open until 6 p.m.
It involved a swab being placed in each person’s nostrils for about 15 seconds.
“It’s not the deep nasal swab,” Hall said. “The swab itself is handed to the person being tested unless it’s a really small child.”
Hall said the testing is much similar to the system in place at Market Place Mall.
The swab is then handed to one of the on-site staff and sprayed with a solution to determine a positive or negative result. The results are available within 15 minutes.
Results are emailed to the recipient. In the case of a student, the results are emailed to a parent or guardian.
District nurse Nita Bachman is overseeing the process. Four health technicians are assisting. Additional personnel are helping with the clerical portion — entering information into the Illinois Department of Public Health’s website.
The district received 56,000 of Abbott’s BinaxNOW COVID-19 Ag Card tests for free from the Champaign-Urbana Public Health District. The tests are not considered to be as accurate as other forms, but are considered a good measure of monitoring symptoms.
Hall said the testing has “taken ... a lot of organizational oversight, which my district nurse is outstanding at.”
Mahomet-Seymour has been testing staff who exhibit COVID-19 symptoms since mid-December. Tuesday marked the first day of testing for students as they returned from the holiday break.
Hall said some staff had tested positive in December. Those who test positive receive more accurate PCR testing.
Mahomet-Seymour will continue the drive-thru testing option each Monday. Testing at each of the district’s schools will also be offered Tuesday through Friday.
Participating in the testing is not mandatory.
“No one is required to get them,” Hall said. “It’s 100 percent voluntary. I would classify it as ‘highly recommended.’ It’s one of our many tools in our safety tool box.
“It’s a way of hopefully catching positive cases earlier and then maybe doing some contact tracing. It’s certainly not the end-all to handling COVID-19, but it’s a tremendous help.”
Mahomet-Seymour has returned to full days of instruction four days a week — Tuesday through Friday. Mondays are full remote-learning days for all students. About 30 percent of students have opted for remote-learning only.
M-S employed a hybrid learning plan during the first semester, and “we got through ... without any interruptions,” Hall said.
That plan involved two days of in-person learning and two days of remote learning for junior high and older students. K-5 students attended two half days, either morning or afternoon in person, plus remote.
