Sterling Pathology urges scalable testing and PCR tests
LOS ANGELES—Science News reported that real-world testing pilots and simulations have shown routine testing of students and staff helps identify cases and pull infected people out of school environments, preventing further outbreaks.
“We are hearing a lot of discussion about the need for rapid tests, especially in school settings,” added Dr. Yang, Sterling Pathology medical director. “We may also need to be mapping out a scalable plan for schools that includes PCR tests.”
“Testing has been widely used at institutions ranging from colleges and universities to the NBA,” says Alyssa Bilinski, a biostatistician at Brown University School of Public Health in Providence, R.I. Testing programs “find people who are currently infectious and isolate them so they don’t spread COVID-19 further.”
Bilinski told Science News, that testing provides school administrators data on coronavirus transmission in the classroom, which can help address pandemic management moving forward.
“Routine testing really has the potential to greatly reduce within-school COVID-19 transmission, and in some cases, even completely eliminate it,” Science News reported Divya Vohra said. Vohra is an epidemiologist at Mathematica, a research organization with headquarters in Princeton, N.J., who studies testing pilot programs.
“We think that it really is a very powerful tool when you layer it on top of all of the other mitigation strategies that schools are implementing, like masking and distancing,” she added.
Rapid tests can deliver results within 15 minutes and are becoming more popular because of their speed of reporting Covid-19 positive results. However, PCR tests are the “gold standard” and despite the longer 24-48 hour time window for results and can even detect results in asymptomatic cases.
The tests Sterling Pathology offers are FDA-approved for emergency use authorization (EUA) during the COVID-19 pandemic. The pathology and genomics lab offers tailored programs that allow large organizations like schools, businesses and governments to administer and oversee scalable testing.
“We promote scalable testing because it helps alleviate strain on communities like schools, on parents, teachers and students,” said Dr. Yang. “Until we achieve scalable testing across institutions, we will continue to see these same reports and outbreaks.”
Sterling Pathology’s molecular testing is capable of detecting active COVID-19 infections in the human body. Unique genetic markers of the virus can be found in RNA that only remains in the body while the virus invades and replicates itself. The benefits of molecular testing is its sensitivity in detecting active infections, allowing patients to receive appropriate treatment options from their Care Provider, and take measures to prevent spreading the infections.
