ECDC endorses “test to stay” model for EU schools in latest Rapid Risk Assessment pandemic update

In the U.S., CDC claims they do “not have enough evidence” to recommend the strategy

The Stockholm-based European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) has endorsed the “test to stay” strategy — a coronavirus testing policy where asymptomatic close contacts can escape quarantine if they repeatedly test negative — in its latest Rapid Risk Assessment report on the state of the pandemic in the European Union. The strategy is already used by some European countries and United States school systems.

The ECDC notes that the increasingly popular coronavirus mitigation measure could “be considered in an attempt to minimise disruption and school absenteeism in school settings while also limiting opportunities for further transmission.”

Rapid Risk Assessment: Assessing SARS-CoV-2 circulation, variants of concern, non-pharmaceutical interventions and vaccine rollout in the EU/EEA, 16th update

To support their recommendation, ECDC cited an English study which found very few close contacts — just about 2% — tested positive after exposure in the school setting and recommended “daily contact testing” as “a safe alternative to home isolation in school-based contacts.”

Overall, this study shows that in secondary schools and colleges of further education, student and staff infection following contact with an individual with COVID-19 at school occurs in only around 2% of contacts. We found switching from isolation at home to daily contact testing, at least in the settings of the schools studied, kept rates of symptomatic COVID-19 in students and staff at similar levels. Daily contact testing is a safe alternative to home isolation in school-based contacts and should be considered an alternative to routine isolation of close contacts following school-based exposures.

ECDC also cited a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) finding “test to stay” was successful when used at Utah high schools.

Test to Stay was conducted at 13 high schools, saving an estimated 109,752 in-person instruction student-days. School-based COVID-19 testing should be considered as part of a comprehensive prevention strategy to help identify SARS-CoV-2 infections in schools and sustain in-person instruction and…