In-School COVID-19 Testing Begins In Arlington Next Week

ARLINGTON, VA — Students and staff members at Arlington Public Schools will be able to receive free in-school COVID-19 tests starting next week, according to a Thursday letter from APS Superintendent Dr. Francisco Durán.

So far, almost 5,000 students and staff members have signed up to receive the free testing.

For the most part, ResourcePath staff will be using the PRC-RT test to begin with, because there is a nationwide shortage of the rapid antigen nasal swab test, according to Durán's letter.

Each testing location will have a weekly, two-hour block when ResourcePath staff will be administering tests. Those who miss a test time will be able to be tested the same day or next at Kenmore Middle School (200 S Carlin Springs Road, Arlington).

On Aug. 12, Arlington announced it was requiring all county and school employees to be vaccinated for COVID-19 or to submit to weekly tests. Following CDC guidelines, Durán announced that all students would be required to wear masks in their schools when the academic year began on Aug. 30 to reduce the spread of COVID-19.

On Thursday morning, 42 new cases of COVID-19 were reported in the Arlington Health District, according to Virginia Department of Health data. That was down from the 77 new cases reported on Wednesday. The last death in Arlington attributed to COVID-19 was reported on Sunday.

To date, 277,374 vaccine doses have been administered in Arlington. In total, 102,863 adults 18 and older have received a single dose of the vaccine, and 138,522 (66.1 percent) adults 18 and older are fully vaccinated.

Anyone in Virginia who is 12 and older is eligible to be vaccinated, although Pfizer-BioNTech is the only vaccine currently available for people ages 12-17. Arlington Public Health operates vaccine clinics at two locations.

The latest information about Arlington's in-school COVID-19 testing is available online.