Davis School District Offers Rapid Testing For Students, Staff

CLEARFIELD, Utah – On the same day the Davis School District announced four more schools were forced into soft closures, the district also opened a rapid testing site for students and staff.

School officials believe the rapid testing will help get kids back into the classroom quickly after quarantine.

“I don’t think they were expecting this many people,” said parent Becky Lund. “Be prepared to entertain children, especially if they’re young,” she laughed.

“Each day we have been open, the tests have almost doubled.”

I got an inside look at the warehouse @DavisCountyHlth and @DavisSchools turned into a rapid test location for students/faculty members.

Full story on @KSL5TV at 5/6. pic.twitter.com/PuIKnuhMV0

— Morgan Wolfe (@MorganWolfeKSL) November 11, 2020

On Wednesday, an estimated 150 to 200 people showed up at the warehouse in Clearfield with five lanes open and several nurses on hand.

It took Lund 90 minutes to get to the front so her fourth grader, who had a school exposure, could be tested.

There is a list of guidelines online for getting tested at this site.

People getting tested at this site must be asymptomatic on the day they’re getting tested. They must be quarantining due to a mask-to-mask exposure, and not a mask-to-no-mask exposure.

“If on day seven, and they don’t have symptoms, they can come out here to get tested,” district spokesman Chris Williams said. “And if they are negative, they can return to school today instead of in 14 days.”

Testing on Wednesday was supposed to run from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m., but officials let testing run until noon because of the long lines.

“I think this is evidence people want to get back to school and that is why they have showed up the way they have,” Williams said.

The Davis School District has more than 70,000 students. The Davis County Health Department received a federal grant for 10,000 rapid tests for employees and students, which means parents will not get tested here.

“It’ll be interesting to see if it stays the same or if they start to have people sign up for timeslots,” Lund said.

She was just happy her daughter was able to get a test – whether her future is learning at home or in the classroom.

“You know, I feel like this is ever-changing,” she said. “You have to be flexible. You have to go with it and take it as it comes.”

The school district said it will stick to the morning hours because there is not enough medical staff to test after school.