Hamburg (dpa / lno) – With the return of the Hamburg daycare centers from the extended emergency to the restricted regular operation, all children in the elementary sector will also receive a Corona self-test offer. For children from around four years of age, free rapid tests would be provided once a week, said the spokesman for the social welfare authority, Martin Helfrich, on Monday of the German press agency. These are so-called “living room tests” with a short swab for the front nasal cavity, “so that such a test can be carried out every week by parents and children together at home, before going to daycare”.
The test is voluntary. “This also means that the right to care is not linked to the implementation of the test.” However, the parents report the test results to the day care center, “said Helfrich. If the result is positive, the child must stay at home and take a PCR test to confirm. which is evaluated in a laboratory.
The offer was a consequence of the pilot test, in which from mid-April parents in 19 daycare centers were called upon to test their children twice a week. Helfrich spoke of a success. Two thirds of the children took part. “A total of between 800 and 900 self-tests per test day were carried out on the children.” In all 5747 tests from April 12th to April 30th, there were only 4 positive results.
The pilot test also showed that tests on smaller children, for example in the daycare area, are very difficult to carry out. “In a qualitative interim evaluation, we received both very positive feedback from parents who linked the tests with the hope of opening perspectives, as well as critical feedback from around a tenth of the parents,” said Helfrich. These ten percent would have explicitly opposed the testing and would not have participated.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210517-99-625321 / 2
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