Thousands missing school as test flaw revealed

A virus expert has flagged concerns about the number of false positives that have resulted in children missing out on going to school.

More than 20,000 Covid-positive students and their siblings are estimated to have missed class in the past week because of home isolation rules.

A further 1463 students and 152 staff have tested positive in the 24 hours to 4pm Wednesday, bringing the number of students with Covid to at least 9000 in the past week.

These positive cases – and their siblings who are also required to isolate at home for seven days – brings the total to more than 20,000, the Herald Sun estimates.

The household contact rules have also led to boarding campuses and camps being forced to close or send home large numbers of students.

The government isn’t keeping track of the number of siblings absent from class, although parents are required to alert schools.

Immunologist Catherine Bennett called for better data and an evaluation of the rules in schools amid concerns false positive tests are keeping people home unnecessarily.

She said the existing regime was a disincentive to test if a child had no symptoms and could lead to healthy siblings testing positive.

“The risk of higher testing rates is a higher number of false positives,” she said.

“It doesn’t happen often but if you are testing 100,000 kids every single day it will happen.”

Professor Bennett said that if there are “no symptoms and no known exposure and no one else has symptoms, but someone tests positive on a RAT test, leave it for a few hours and test again”.

“Even if it’s still positive there is no guarantee so maybe do a PCR,” she said.

The Education Department’s School for Student Leadership’s Snowy River Campus was forced to close on Wednesday after two positive Covid cases.

Rachel Ansell, from Kaniva, said her 14-year-old daughter Laila was left “devastated”.

“Forty-five students are now at home isolating when every other school has a child stay at home instead of shutting when they’ve tested positive,” Ms Ansell said.

“It’s ridiculous that it’s had to shut with everyone isolating for seven days, when no other schools are doing that.”

Some parents are railing on social media against the rules which have led to some Covid-negative students yet to set foot on campus after doing back-to-back isolation periods.

This includes those who are fully vaccinated, have no symptoms and continue to test negative.

The Department of Education is understood to have all settings under consideration, and will have more to say about the rest of the term soon.

Ms Bennett also said an evaluation was needed to assess the impact of students wearing masks.

Education Minister James Merlino has already flagged the review of twice-weekly rapid antigen tests at the end of the fourth week of term.

Associate Professor Margie Danchin from the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute said she could understand why parents are frustrated but called for patience throughout term one.

Originally published as Thousands missing school as test flaw revealed