Abstract
(1) Background: With vaccination and new variants of SARS-CoV-2 on the horizon, efficient testing in schools may enable prevention of mass infection outbreaks, keeping schools safe places and buying time until decisions on feasibility and the necessity of vaccination in children and youth are made. We established, in the course of the WICOVIR (Where Is the COrona VIRus) study, that gargle-based pool-PCR testing offers a feasible, efficient, and safe testing system for schools in Germany when applied by central university laboratories. (2) Objectives: We evaluated whether this approach can be implemented in different rural and urban settings. (3) Methods: We assessed the arrangements required for successful implementation of the WICOVIR approach in a variety of settings in terms of transport logistics, data transfer and pre-existing laboratory set-up, as well as the time required to establish the set-up. (4) Results: We found that once regulatory issues have been overcome, all challenges pertaining to logistics, data transfer, and laboratory testing on different platforms can be solved within one month. Pooling and depooling of samples down to the individual test result were achievable within one working day in all settings. Local involvement of the community and decentralized set-ups were keys for success. (5) Conclusion: The WICOVIR gargle-based pool-PCR system is so robust and simple that it can be implemented within one month in all settings now or in future pandemics.
Highlights
School-based testing has become an important concept for keeping children safe at school during the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, especially as provision of vaccination to children is associated with considerable delay [1]
We and others have shown that gargle-based pool Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR testing can provide a safe, efficient, and cost-effective alternative, [6,7,8,9] and the WICOVIR (Where Is the COrona VIRus?) study was initiated in March 2021 in the south of Previously, we had gained experience in a proof-of-concept study, which began in the summer of 2020, of how testing of school children can be established successfully in selected urban schools [6]
After establishment of WICOVIR facilities for testing for SARS-CoV-2 infection in schools in two large, centrally located scientific laboratories in Erlangen and Regensburg, we show here how the WIOCIVR protocol can be successfully implemented within four weeks in rural and urban regions with minimal effort, making use of pre-existing logistical structures and laboratory testing facilities or by creating new regional collaborations
Summary
School-based testing has become an important concept for keeping children safe at school during the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, especially as provision of vaccination to children is associated with considerable delay [1]. Antigen tests have been used widely to test adults for severe acute respiratory virus (SARS-CoV-2), and they have been introduced into schools, with children performing the test themselves in classrooms. We and others have shown that gargle-based pool Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR testing can provide a safe, efficient, and cost-effective alternative, [6,7,8,9] and the WICOVIR (Where Is the COrona VIRus?) study was initiated in March 2021 in the south of Germany [10]. We had gained experience in a proof-of-concept study, which began in the summer of 2020, of how testing of school children can be established successfully in selected urban schools [6]. We provide evidence that the WICOVIR concept, which is based on gargle-based pool
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