COVID cases in Henrico Schools decline, more at-home test kits ordered

Henrico County Public Schools reported 60 new COVID-19 cases last week, down from the previous week’s 83 school-related cases.

Since Sept. 1, the school system has reported 995 cases among students and staff — 510 at the elementary level, 213 in middle schools, 253 in high schools and 19 in various annexes. There are about 48,000 in-person students and about 7,000 staff members in HCPS, according to the most recent estimates provided by the school district.

The school division reported 32 new cases and 161 exposures in elementary schools last week.

In middle schools, there were 16 cases resulting in 229 close contacts. The bulk of those exposures occurred at Moody Middle, where two positive cases resulted in 89 exposures.

In high schools, 12 cases were reported last week with 75 exposures, largely coming from Godwin High and Glen Allen High.

Schools and offices began to mass distribute at-home test kits on Oct. 20, part of an effort to get students back to school more quickly after quarantining due to exposures or COVID-19 symptoms.

In the first three days, school staff provided 170 test kits to families and staff members.

There is still an inventory of the BinaxNOW Ag Card Home test kits within schools and in the warehouse, but HCPS ordered an additional 3,900 test kits last week to keep up with demand.

The initial shipment was 2,500 test kits, but division officials decided to increase the inventory to 56 kits per school, according to HCPS Chief of Staff Beth Teigen.

The shortage of COVID-19 tests available in the community has made it hard for many Henrico families to acquire tests that would allow students to return to classrooms. The tests supplied by schools are provided at no cost to students or families.

“I'm happy to report that (families) have found the test kits relatively easy to use and have been quite appreciative,” Tiegen said at Thursday’s school board meeting.

The at-home tests are a component of the state-funded COVID-19 testing program for K-12 schools called Virginia School Screening Testing for Assurance.

HCPS is also using the ViSSTA program to test weekly all unvaccinated students and coaches who participate in winter sports. Teigen said Thursday that the testing vendor is able to provide individual test results for each athlete and coach within 24 hours of testing. However, they will not be able to complete all of the testing during the after school hours, so testing will have to take place in a combination of times before school, during lunch and after school.

On Oct. 20, all HCPS staff members received an email requesting they provide their vaccination status and a copy of their vaccination record card. As of last Monday, 10% had responded.

While staff are being asked if they are inoculated against COVID-19, they are not required to answer. Vaccinated people generally do not have to quarantine, but according to protocol, they should always be informed if they are exposed.

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Anna Bryson is the Henrico Citizen’s education reporter and a Report for America corps member. Make a tax-deductible donation to support her work, and RFA will match it dollar for dollar.