(Reuters) -The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said it is considering a coronavirus “test-to-stay” program in schools instead of quarantine.
The program is for students who may have been exposed to COVID-19 in school and can still attend classes in person rather than quarantine at home as long as they test negative for the disease and show no symptoms.
“Test to stay” is a practice comprised of regular testing and contact tracing to allow close contacts to remain in the classroom, while maintaining other layered prevention strategies, such as universal masking, to reduce the spread of COVID-19, according to the CDC website.
The agency said it views test to stay “as a promising practice,” adding it was working with multiple jurisdictions now implementing test to stay to evaluate the effectiveness of this strategy.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in BengaluruEditing by Matthew Lewis)
