Capitol School Has No New COVID-19 Cases After Testing Initiative

Ryan Phillips
·1 min read

TUSCALOOSA, AL — After testing its 195 students to begin the week, the Capitol School in Tuscaloosa says there were no new COVID-19 cases identified.

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The school pointed out in a press release on Thursday that while parents choose to test their children in the optional program offered by the school, all faculty and staff are required to test weekly.

Thanks to a federally-funded testing program, the latest round of screening at the school resulted in the largest number to test since the program began on Sept. 3, 2021. While there were no cases identified among K-12 classes, four preschoolers tested positive this week — all of whom are too young to be vaccinated.

This comes as a slight reprieve for a community ravaged by a disturbing new surge in cases and hospitalizations. As Patch reported on Wednesday, DCH Regional Medical Center reported 175 total COVID-19 inpatients, marking its highest number of hospitalizations since January 2021.

What's more, this week also saw Tuscaloosa County top the grim milestone of 50,000 cumulative COVID-19 cases identified since the onset of the pandemic.

Operation Expanded Testing, which made the testing initiative possible for the Capitol School, provided $146 million last July to Alabama schools, which covers the cost of test materials, shipping and lab processing for schools to perform the PCR COVID -19 tests.

While the funding does not provide personnel, the testing agency — Concentric — set up training for the school last August, then provided the testing materials though the program.

The Capitol School says Massachusetts-based Eurofins is the lab used for the past two weeks due to the backlog in Alabama labs.

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This article originally appeared on the Tuscaloosa Patch