Mass Seattle Schools COVID tests show 4% positive rate

SEATTLE (AP) — Officials say around 4% of more than 14,000 Seattle Public Schools students and staff who participated in the district’s rapid testing clinics this week tested positive for COVID-19.

Volunteers and district staff administered the tests in pop-up clinics on Sunday and Monday after the state’s largest district received a shipment of 60,000 rapid tests from the state health department. Seattle has about 50,000 students and 7,800 staff.

The Seattle Times reports the testing was intended to help build a forecast of how many staff might be out for quarantine periods and need substitutes, and to slow virus transmission in classrooms after winter break.

Carri Campbell, the district’s assistant deputy superintendent, said in-person instruction is the district’s priority and the primary reason for the pop-up test sites.

The district sent a message to families two weeks ago warning that if cases spiked after the holidays, classes could be moved online temporarily.

Officials were not able to provide a breakdown of the positive cases by staff and students on Tuesday, but Campbell noted that the staff absence rates on Tuesday, the first day of school in the new year, looked typical.

No other school district in Washington state has administered rapid tests in such a manner and scale.