Hurley School to offer daily COVID-19 testing

By TOM LAVENTURE

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Hurley — A third-party health company will provide daily COVID-19 testing for students at no charge for parents who want the testing, according to reports at the Hurley Public School Board on Monday. 

Covid Clinic, a company contracted through the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, will offer parents the opportunity to have their child tested for COVID-19 at the school entrance from 7:30 to 11 a.m., inside of the school building, and from 11 a.m. to noon with drive through service by the north door, according to Kevin Genisot, school district administrator. The testing is for students or family members of the students, he said. 

The state of Wisconsin has offered these services at no charge to the school district, said said Genisot. The funds come to the state through federal pandemic relief. 

It simply provides a convenience with a quick response or answer to whether their child tested without parent consent unless they were 18 years old. 

The company is a vendor of the state and has no oversight from the school district, he said. At some point, the drive-through testing may open up to the community if the company is able to manage that with the school testing, he said. 

Other school districts have decided to train staff to do the testing and that was an option for Hurley, he said. The school district decided that, for now, the third-party testing was preferable as it provides no cost to the school district or families and the company has its own staff and supplies.

The company uses the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test which takes about two days to get the results emailed to the parents, he said. The company does not do the rapid testing with instant results but the PCR testing has about 100% accuracy where the speed test does not, he said. 

“I think the turnaround time of being two days out for the PCR test is really going to help us because that’s dead accurate, especially when you compare it to the rapid test,” Genisot said. 

At this point, the information from the testing does not go directly to the school, he said. Once the company is  able to enter results with the state database the Iron County Health Department will have access and be able to provide updates. 

In his report, Genisot said that 22 students are currently out of school on quarantine for COVID-19 exposure. There have been 48 students out on quarantine since the start of the year and all have returned since. 

There were four COVID-19 positive students who have since returned to class. There are two COVID-19 positive students currently out of school. 

The other quarantined students include 13 students with a close-contact situation, he said. None of the students have tested positive so far. 

Incidentally, none of the students who were quarantined with a close-contact situation in the 2020-21 school year eventually tested positive, he said. 

There are 51 students who reported experiencing COVID-19 symptoms. Two of the students experiencing light symptoms and one student with heavy symptoms are out of school and reported to be doing well, he said. 

So far this year, of the students tested, there were six positive results and 34 students with symptoms or reporting a close contact and were tested and showed negative results, he said.