Neelyville school district receives COVID-19 test kits

Students and staff with the Neelyville R-IV school district now have an additional option for COVID-19 testing.

The school received 125 antigen tests and trained nursing staff to be able to conduct rapid-response antigen testing on campus.

Those seeking a test need to either be symptomatic of COVID-19 or with known exposure to the virus. Students also need parental consent before the district will run the test.

Superintendent Debra Parish said one test has been run so far and the district will continue to offer tests as long as it has them.

As of Thursday, two students were positive with COVID-19 and 47 were in quarantine for exposure, Parish said.

“We’re doing much better,” she said. “There for quite a while, we had several staff members. I think we’ve had about 25 all together positive staff members. Maybe we won’t have any for a while, who knows?”

Recently, board members approved a new COVID-19 policy.

Under the new guidelines, students can test out of quarantine on day five, six or seven. If the test is negative, they can return to school, but need to wear a mask for the rest of their 10-day quarantine.

Previously, they couldn’t test out until day 7 and the quarantine period lasted 14 days.

Additionally, the students can now get a test at the school to qualify to test out of quarantine when that wasn’t previously allowed.

The testing is part of a state program that prioritized public and private schools to receive Abbott’s BinaxNOW rapid antigen test kits.

The test is a nasal swab and yields results in 15 minutes. Neelyville administration applied to receive tests.

Nursing staff will administer the test and have been trained to do so.

People who test negative, but are exhibiting symptoms, should be encouraged to follow-up with their health care provider, according to documents about the program.