Concord Schools Agree To Coronavirus Pool Testing Program

CONCORD, MA — Concord schools will offer COVID-19 pool testing as part of a state program. The program is six weeks and provides on-site asymptomatic PCR pooled COVID-19 tests. The free program is funded by the Department of Public Health as well as the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

The Concord Public Schools and Concord-Carlisle Regional School Committees voted on Tuesday to participate in the program. Pool testing means that instead of waiting on each individual person's results to be analyzed and brought back, tests are analyzed and brought back in a group, or pool. The Concord program will analyze 10 tests at a time — if the pool comes back positive then everyone in that pool must be retested individually.

The test is done at least once per week and results are delivered within 24-48 hours.

According to the Concord Public School's District COVID-19 tracker, there have been 680 cases of the virus in the district since the start of the school year.

DESE is covering the costs for the testing initiative in the initial start-up of the program. The estimated to cost is between $15 million and $30 million which will be funded by federal stimulus funds. Once the six weeks are up, districts and schools can continue using pooled testing by buying the tests and equipment from a statewide contract using stimulus funds.