$5 Covid antigen tests now available for California school districts

The California Department of Education announced last week that the state has purchased 5 million rapid-result Covid antigen tests that school districts can buy for $5 each.

The BinaxNOW antigen tests, produced by Abbot Labs, can provide results indicating the presence of the infection within 15 minutes. They are an added safety measure that districts can deploy as part of their strategy to reopen schools, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond said.

Compton, Pomona and Redwood City are among the school districts using BinaxNow tests in a state pilot program, and Fresno Unified will soon join them, according to a webinar last week. The Los Angeles County Office of Education is also considering deploying them, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Like the PCR tests used by the state-run lab in Valencia, CA, rapid antigen tests obtain specimens through a swab inserted in the nose. Although PCR tests detect presence of the virus in more minuscule amounts — and thus earlier — than antigen tests, the turnaround time for the state lab is one to three days, and the state’s charge, though less expensive than earlier this year, is now $21 per test.

Antigen tests are useful in detecting community rates of infectiousness, particularly in asymptomatic individuals, and are more effective than when they were first available last spring, epidemiologist Charity Dean, former cochair of the Governor’s California Testing Task Force, said. A common strategy is to test all willing students and staff twice a week, she said.

Initial tests among students and staff in some of the pilot districts revealed a very low positivity rate of 0.4%, reinforcing that “schools are a very safe” place to be, Dean said.

Districts are not required to conduct Covid testing of students and staff that have submitted school reopening plans by April 1, under the law that Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Legislature negotiated and that Newsom signed into law earlier this month. However, districts that do testing as one more assurance for the safe return of students can use state and federal Covid funding to pay for them.