Mobile team starts testing at the school gate in the province of Antwerp – Policy

A month ago, microbiologist Herman Goossens of the University of Antwerp argued for mobile teams that would test students and teachers at school, to avoid quarantining entire classes. This week, for the first time, such a team is leaving to relieve the general practitioners and the school doctors.

Since this week, a bus has been driving around in the province of Antwerp with two nurses as well as a driver. It is one of the mobile testing teams that the microbiologist Herman Goossens had in mind. The intention is to have two such mobile teams on the road soon. This would also be considered in other provinces, but Antwerp is the first province to start it.
…

Since this week, a bus has been driving around in the province of Antwerp with two nurses as well as a driver. It is one of the mobile testing teams that the microbiologist Herman Goossens had in mind. The intention is to have two such mobile teams on the road soon. This would also be considered in other provinces, but Antwerp is the first province to start it. “The CLB doctors lose a lot of time, because they have to send students and teachers to the GP”, says Guy Hans, the medical director of the UZA . “Ten students can go to ten different GPs. Those tests are not given priority in the labs. And it is not always easy for the school doctors to get all the test results afterwards.” Speed ​​is nevertheless important. “If a risk contact at school is infected, the whole contact tracing exercise has to start over from scratch,” explains Hans. By parking the bus close to the school and knocking directly at the federal testing platform, the mobile teams could collect data faster and more efficiently, as well as validate the famous saliva tests. “We use the classic nose and throat swabs and will also request a saliva sample,” says Hans. “With the saliva tests we can test many more people, and fewer personnel are needed for the collection. By using the two tests side by side, we can determine how accurate the saliva tests are.” The processing of the saliva tests in the labs must be done. still happen. So you cannot solve the bottleneck that is currently available at the labs. Corona commissioner Pedro Facon has promised on Radio 1 that the capacity of the labs will be increased to 100,000 classic corona tests per day by the end of the year. Today, these labs can process 60,000 to 65,000 tests a day fairly quickly. According to Philippe De Backer, who until recently was responsible for the test capacity, it is possible to increase the test capacity in a few weeks. He also points out that in many other countries, asymptomatic high-risk contacts have been quarantined for some time, without testing. “It is not an illogical decision,” he responds to the change to the test strategy that was implemented on Monday evening. Hans admits that he is concerned that in our country all close contacts of infected people will no longer be investigated. People without symptoms are not tested for the time being, to give priority to people with symptoms and people who work in healthcare. “But the strategy in the schools remains unchanged”, Hans emphasizes. “Because in order to identify clusters of infections in schools, high-risk contacts must be investigated.”

– .