State to offer schools free COVID-19 testing under contract with CIC Health

BOSTON — The state is offering free diagnostic and routine pooled COVID-19 testing to all MA schools for the 2021-2022 school year under a new contract with CIC Health. Last year, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education [DESE] and the Executive Office of Health and Human Services [EOHHS] offered free testing resources to schools.

This year, “following a competitive procurement process,” the state has selected the health tech company that has run several mass testing and vaccination sites to provide testing for all students and staff at the state’s participating public and parochial schools, grades kindergarten through 12, according to the DESE website. School districts must opt-in to the program to receive the testing services.

Dr. Michael Misialek, the associate chair of Pathology at Newton-Wellesley Hospital, told Boston 25 News Monday that, along with vaccinations and masking, testing is critical to a safe return to in-person learning.

“I think it’s wonderful news. It’s exactly what we need going forward here with the uptick in cases with the Delta variant,” Misialek said of the state’s contract with CIC Health. “This is a large population of children who aren’t vaccinated and are susceptible to [COVID-19], and testing is really our best defense against it for those patients who haven’t yet been approved to receive the vaccine.”

Diagnostic testing being offered through the program includes symptomatic testing for individuals who present symptoms at school, as well as “test and stay” for close contacts. For the latter, shallow nasal swab samples are collected for five days straight, allowing the individual to remain in the classroom, if negative.

Routine COVID pooled testing involves collecting multiple samples, combining them, and, if a positive results after testing as a group, following up with individual testing. Combining the samples and following up can occur either at school or at the lab.

Such pooled testing has been found to be effective and inexpensive. While school districts can choose either type of testing, the state is encouraging them to participate in both.

As the Delta variant spreads, Misialek said demand for testing has increased at Newton-Wellesley. While cases are on the rise, the majority of those hospitalized are unvaccinated, he said.

“COVID is definitely and unfortunately not gone away. It probably won’t be for some time,” Misialek said. “The Delta variant has really changed the rule book here as far as how we’ve been combating the pandemic, and because of its increased virulence and contagiousness, we really have to double down on the measures we used effectively during the first and second surges here.”

Safe in-person learning will not only benefit kids academically, Misialek said. Returning to a normal routine and socialization will hopefully help with the rising cases of mental and behavioral health issues among children during the pandemic.

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