Updated at 12:44 p.m. ET on November, 23 2021
In a world with perfect coronavirus tests, people could swab their nose or spit in a tube and get near-instant answers about their SARS-CoV-2 status. The products would be free, fast, and completely reliable. Positives would immediately shuttle people out of public spaces and, if needed, into treatment; negatives could green-light entry into every store, school, and office, and spring people out of isolation with no second thought. Tests would guarantee
In August 2020, the school superintendent in Omaha, Neb., approached a microbiology lab at the local university’s medical center. School districts across the country were starting to design pilot programs for routine COVID-19 testing in the coming fall semester, and Omaha Public Schools wanted to join the trend.
The result? During Omaha’s pilot of frequent, asymptomatic testing, the rate of cases detected in the school testing program was six times as high as the case rate reported by traditional testing
Health chiefs have launched an urgent probe into the PCR testing network after a blunder at a Wolverhampton lab saw up to 45,000 Covid-infected Britons wrongly told they did not have the virus.
Dr Jenny Harries, the head of the UK Health Security Agency, said a ‘few thousand’ of the missed cases – mostly in the South West – were likely still infectious. People in the South East and Wales are also known to be affected.
She said a ‘serious
A nasty dry cough, sniffles and a thumping headache. Burning muscle pain. And, if you didn’t feel miserable enough, everything you eat tastes like dust. It’s a list of symptoms the British public have become all too familiar with over the past 18 months – classic Covid. Or is it?
A fortnight ago, Mail on Sunday columnist Sarah Vine wrote about how she had been battling exactly this combination of ailments, but multiple tests – both the gold-standard PCR and
Backpack? Check. Notebooks and pencils? Check. Coronavirus test? Check.
As fall approaches, many parents and teachers hope to leave Zoom school behind and have kids return to the classroom. But the exceptionally transmissible delta variant threatens to dash these hopes as schools scramble to prepare. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advises that schools employ a suite of COVID-19 mitigation measures, including social distancing, masking for all students and teachers, improving air filtration and testing students regularly.
Testing,
