Marin County school district assigns COVID-19 tests as homework over holiday break
FILE - A health worker handles COVID-19 rapid tests at a testing site in Oakland, Calif., on April 29, 2021. (Jane Tyska/Digital First Media/East Bay Times via Getty Images)
MARIN COUNTY, Calif. - At-home COVID-19 tests were sent home with all Marin County public schoolchildren and school employees this week to be completed before returning to school in January after the holiday break.
An estimated 96,000 tests provided by the state were distributed in a joint effort by Marin County Public Health and Marin County Office of Education, according to a news release from county officials.
Each student and staff member received two tests and were asked to use one of them the day before returning to school and report the results through the district's online reporting system.
"It's a simple strategy--test everyone before they come back to school, to help ensure no one who's infected comes onto campus on day one," said Dr. Matt Willis, Marin County's public health officer. "We've been working with schools to promote home testing for months, so this should be familiar to most families."
Health officials announced Friday that the county's first case of the omicron variant of COVID-19 was confirmed in someone who recently returned from a trip to the East Coast. The person, who was fully vaccinated but had not yet gotten a booster shot, was in isolation with mild symptoms, according county officials Friday.