At least 178 schools or districts have taken up Minnesota's offer of free COVID-19 test kits for students — a demographic seeing higher pandemic infection rates and lower vaccination coverage.
The requests came in the two weeks since the Minnesota Department of Health offered saliva test kits to middle schools, high schools and sports organizations to increase surveillance of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. Twenty clubs representing six sports have requested 1,013 kits as well.
While risks of serious illness remain low in children, Minnesota health officials are concerned that they spread SARS-CoV-2 to others who are more vulnerable. More infectious viral variants have hospitalized younger Minnesotans, though, and could present more threats to children.
"Every person COVID-19 infects is a chance for others to become sick and for the virus to mutate into new forms that could test us again," said Jan Malcolm, state health commissioner.
Mayo Clinic modeling suggests that vaccinations helped Minnesota avert a third variant-driven pandemic wave this spring that would have far exceeded the wave that clogged up hospitals late last year. Instead, the wave peaked two weeks ago and infections and hospitalizations have declined — though Minnesota on Sunday reported another seven COVID-19 deaths and 810 infections.
The state also reported that more than 2.6 million people had received at least first doses of vaccine, and that Minnesota is 435,657 shots away from a 70% vaccination rate among eligible people that could inhibit viral spread. Gov. Tim Walz has pledged to lift the state's public indoor mask mandate before July 1 if Minnesota reaches that target.
The Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine is available to teens 16 and 17 years old, but the age cutoff for the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson doses is 18. The Pfizer vaccine could be offered to children ages 12 to 15 yet this month, but Malcolm said federal approval to vaccinate children younger than that is unlikely until 2022.
Testing is viewed as a strategy to get through the school year by quickly identifying outbreaks among students and preventing them from jeopardizing in-person learning, sports, proms and graduations. It also could be used for surveillance starting next fall if the pandemic lingers.