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A pilot project for the use of antigen tests has been running in Lower Austria, Tyrol and Carinthia since the end of the autumn holidays in order to clear up suspected cases of Covid 19 in schools as soon as possible. After testing the logistics, the project will now be rolled out across the country in early December, Education Minister Heinz Faßmann (ÖVP) announced on Wednesday at a press conference in Mödling. Also, a mobile test bus should drive to schools where there are already positive cases.
“Suspected Covid cases should disrupt everyday school life as little as possible. Because if children or teachers wait a long time for a test or diagnosis, this is not beneficial for the classroom at all. The negative effects are significant,” emphasized Faßmann . Its objective is a “virus resistant school”, and that requires the clarification of suspected cases.
Mobile teams with gurgling evidence have been in action in Vienna since September to clear up suspicious cases in schools. Of the 5,900 people who were tested in one month, 3.5 percent tested positive. Now the ministry goes one step further and begins with rapid antigen testing: if a student or teacher is classified as a suspected Covid 19 case based on symptoms, a mobile team of medical specialists comes to the school and takes a smear of nasopharynx. Rapid antigen test. A laboratory is not required for evaluation, the result is available after a few minutes.
If the test result is negative, normal lessons can be continued. No further testing or quarantine is necessary. If the result is positive, the health authorities are informed as usual and the chain of measures is started. The authorities decide on a quarantine and how to proceed with contact persons.
A parental consent declaration is required for testing for children under 14 years of age; They will also be informed in case of suspicion and may be present during the test. The ministry recommends that parents whose children are at home with possible Covid-19 symptoms perform an antigen test at their GP.
“In general, with these rapid tests, we are relieving the children, the parents and the school, because the wait has been extremely uncomfortable so far,” Faßmann said. The problem with the contact persons will also be solved. If a suspected case quickly turns negative, there are no more K1 people here either. In addition to the three pilot regions of Lower Austria, Tyrol and Carinthia, the process is already being used in Vorarlberg, and use at the national level should be possible from December.
Mobile testbus
In addition to antigen testing in suspected cases, the education department is now also testing a new mobile test bus in a pilot project in Mödling, in which samples are evaluated using the RT-LAMP method. It is intended for those locations in which there is already a positive case to screen the contact persons. Quarantine doesn’t save them that, but they quickly know if they’re infected.
In this case, the sample is taken using the gargle technique, evaluation by medically trained personnel is performed in the mobile bus laboratory in front of the school. The result is there after about an hour. In Lower Austria it is equivalent to a PCR test, so no further testing is necessary.
With the RT-LAMP method used on the bus, which was developed by researchers from the BioCenter Vienna, the genetic material of the Sars-CoV-2 virus can be detected “simply and quickly” without the use of high-tech laboratory equipment and without complex pretreatments, as emphasized in a BioCenter information sheet. As with the PCR test, which is used as the standard method to detect coronavirus, the reverse transcription loop-mediated isothermal AMP amplification method (RT-LAMP method) also directly detects the genetic makeup of the virus. It takes about 45 minutes from sample to result, with the PCR variant it is three to four hours. The RT-LAMP test is also significantly cheaper.
