State Deploys COVID-19 Rapid Mobile Testing Unit To 13 School Districts
BILLERICA (CBS) – The state has deployed its Rapid Mobile Testing Unit to 13 school districts, including Billerica Memorial High School.
"We suspect there was one case of in-school transmission and that's what triggered it," said Mark Efstratiou, the school committee chairman.
To prevent a potential COVID-19 cluster, the state turned the high school's gymnasium into a testing site on November 24. The services are for students and faculty only – free of charge.
Efstratiou called the testing units a valuable resource to keep students in the classroom, instead of remote learning.
"You have to pay $160 – I think that's the going rate up here. That's a lot of money for people," he said. "If it was made available through a state program to all school districts, I think that helps everybody."
Schools in Boston, Worcester and Lawrence have also called on the state for its testing units and they're deployed only if there's suspicious of spread in the classroom.
In Billerica, the school superintendent alerted students that out of the 221 tests given out at the high school, not one came back positive.
Efstratiou believes the Rapid Mobile Testing Units should be more widely available – not just used in emergency situations.
"If they want us to go back to school full time, in-classroom, which is great for everybody, we need to know it's safe. And the only way to do that is testing."
According the Department of Education, there are approximately 450,000 public school students receiving some form of in-person instruction every week, and more than 75,000 staff in buildings.
The mobile testing unit was sent to the following communities:
Milton
Lawrence
Malden
Braintree
Acton/Boxboro
Rockland
Brighton
Southwick
Haverhill
Worcester
Winchester
Billerica
Marshfield
