AUGUSTA — The Maine Department of Health and Human Services and the Maine Department of Education announced Tuesday new COVID-19 testing options to support schools in Maine, strengthening Maine’s strategy that has effectively limited virus transmission in school settings.

The Departments announced the State has purchased 250,000 BinaxNOW rapid antigen tests and will prioritize these tests for schools, along with health care and long-term care sites, to expand regular testing in schools and support in-person learning.

The tests are expected to arrive over the next three months and come in addition to 25,000 BinaxNOW tests that remain from the State’s initial 2020 Federal distribution, according to a news release. 

The BinaxNOW rapid antigen tests can detect coronavirus infection from a nasal swab sample in approximately 15 minutes, the release noted.

“Expanding COVID-19 testing in schools will further protect the health of Maine children, educators, and school staff, along with their broader communities,” said DHHS Commissioner Jeanne Lambrew. “Quickly identifying cases and preventing outbreaks helps to keep schools and other settings safe, which is why testing is key to Maine’s effective strategy to limit the spread of COVID-19.”

The tests can support in-person learning by diagnosing COVID-19 in symptomatic individuals and enabling regular testing, or serial testing, of teachers and staff who are close contacts of COVID-positive individuals.

Serial testing of asymptomatic teachers and staff who are deemed close contacts allows them to forego the need for quarantine for ten days and continue to provide in-person instruction, provided that they test negative. Serial testing of close contacts is supported by the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Maine CDC) and is used in health care, long-term care, and childcare facilities – prime settings for distribution of the new BinaxNOW tests.

To date, more than 80 school districts across Maine have received rapid tests.

“We are grateful for the support from our colleagues at DHHS and CDC,” said Education Commissioner Pender Makin. “They are providing another incredibly important resource that will add an additional safeguard to the already successful health and safety protocols Maine schools have been using.”

The Maine DOE nurse consulting team, along with the Maine CDC, will provide the support and technical assistance to schools that wish to implement additional testing as a strategy to advance in-person instruction. Schools must have a CLIA waiver and a nurse to administer the tests.

DHHS has also encouraged the state-supported “Swab and Send” sites that collect samples for the State’s Health and Environmental Testing Laboratory (HETL) to provide PCR testing for school personnel and students who seek a diagnosis related to COVID-19. Each site can develop its own policy to prioritize these individuals, but ensuring teachers, staff, and students have access to timely, reliable testing will advance Maine’s COVID-19 response.

“As a complement to existing safety protocols such as wearing masks, washing hands often, and physical distancing, expanded testing can help Maine school officials make informed decisions about how to keep their communities safe,” said Dr. Nirav D. Shah, Director of the Maine CDC.

The expanded testing options for Maine schools are consistent with new school guidance from the U.S. CDC. That guidance emphasizes a layered approach to COVID-19 mitigation strategies and is largely consistent with the strategy Maine put in place months ago to combat the spread of COVID-19 in school settings. The new federal guidance recognizes that in-person learning in schools that follow public health precautions can be conducted safely without increased transmission of COVID-19.

Maine’s approach to school reopening and in-person learning is working, the release touted.

The rate of new cases of COVID-19 in school staff and students in Maine continues to be less than half of the statewide average (36 versus 81 per 10,000 in the last 30 days), and, as of February 11, only 33 (or 5 percent) of Maine’s 610 schools had open outbreaks, the largest of which had 10 cases. As a result, the Administration will continue with its strategy, supplemented with additional testing, and urges school districts to continue to follow its requirements and recommendations.