A voluntary pilot testing scheme for Covid-19 is due to begin in secondary schools throughout this summer term.

The scheme will involve home testing kits being offered to young people and school staff as part of the island’s long-term Exit Framework for living in a world with coronavirus.

Lateral Flow Devices (LFDs) - commonly referred to as rapid lateral flow tests - are for people who do not currently have symptoms of coronavirus, as opposed to the more widely used PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests, which are for people with symptoms or those arriving at the border.

While PCR tests are usually conducted by a medical professional before being sent to a lab to be checked, LFDs can be administered at home by anyone.

You can then see the result on a device similar to a pregnancy test, usually within 30 minutes.

Their use has been widely encouraged across the UK, where packs of seven tests are freely available to anyone who requests one, and they have been used in schools there since March.

Under the new government pilot scheme, students and school staff on the island will be given the opportunity to collect up to two lateral flow tests per week to take home and carry out.

The Health Minister described the tests as a ’mitigation measure’ during a coronavirus briefing held on Thursday.

David Ashford said: ’If you were [still] in the elimination phase, everything would remain as PCR [testing] as it did throughout the entire elimination phase, because you’re trying to remove the virus completely.

’We’ve got to be absolutely honest, this is a virus, it’s going to be in circulation for years [or] decades to come, if not forever, as some viruses are.’

The scheme has been described as a surveillance pilot to keep track of the possible numbers of coronavirus on island moving forward.

Mr Ashford stressed: ’We are not going to prevent outbreaks on the island. There will be outbreaks, what we have to do is contain serious illness and death as a result of that.

’The key word is surveillance. It’s not being used as a measure or anything like that, it’s a surveillance.’

The use of rapid lateral flow tests as a preventative measure has been criticised by some due to evidence which shows that the accuracy of lateral flow testing falls dramatically when they are administered by self-trained, non-healthcare workers.

This means that depending on who administers the test, LFDs can give the wrong result as much as 60% of the time.

Mr Ashford addressed these concerns at Thursday’s Covid briefing, saying that the margin of error caused by LFDs was ’one of the reasons why we didn’t use them in the elimination phase’.

He said: ’That’s why myself, the Chief Minister, and on occasion the Director of Public Health, stood at this podium when it was raised about lateral flow [testing] and said no, we won’t be using them.

’Because the level of accuracy and the potential for either false negatives or false positives, in an elimination phase was too high, of that risk.

’But it changes now that we’re in mitigation, it [becomes] another tool in our arsenal.’

HOW TO:

To use the kits, you first must wash your hands with soap or use hand sanitiser, and then lay all the items in the test kit out on a clean surface.

Then fill the tube in the test kit with the liquid provided and close the lid, before blowing your nose and washing your hands again.

To administer the test, open your mouth wide and rub the swab over your tonsils (or where they would have been, if you’ve had them removed).

Do this for around 10 seconds, being careful to avoid the end of the swab touching your teeth, tongue or gums.

Then put the same swab inside your nose (about 2.5 cm up, or until you feel some resistance).

The end of the swab is then placed into the tube so it’s in the liquid you prepared earlier. This becomes your sample for testing.

Then squeeze the liquid from the tube onto the specimen well labelled ’S’ on the test strip.

After testing, the results should take 15 to 30 minutes to come through.

There are two letters on the test strip to show results - ’C’ and ’T’. The ’C’ stands for control and the ’T’ for test.

The control line will begin to appear after about four minutes, which signifies a negative result if it is the only line on the kit at the end of the development time.

However you must wait the full 30 minutes, as it could take this long for a second line to appear next to the T - which means the test result has come back positive.

If no lines appear, or only one next to the T, the test is void and you must restart the process with a new test.

A video explaining how to use the test in detail will also be available on school websites once the pilot goes live.

Deputy editor Andy Dalrymple undertook a lateral test in the office.

He said: ’The instructions were fairly easy to follow, although it took me a while to get everything ready and complete the test.

’Taking the sample itself was pretty straightforward, although a tad uncomfortable particularly when you had to swab your nose.

’I suppose it is like anything, the more you do it the easier and quicker it will become.’

The government has stressed that taking part in testing is voluntary and all pupils will be able to attend school whether they take part in testing or not, but participation is encouraged.

Anyone who receives a positive test will be asked to follow the current isolation guidelines and will be subject to further PCR testing along with their family members.

The Health Minister said: ’The vaccination programme is our way out of the pandemic, but it is important that we look at all options that will help us to assess and manage the virus.

’Typically, up to one third of people who test positive don’t show symptoms and are at risk of transmitting it, so by testing students it will help to identify any sporadic case, and contribute to the island’s measures to mitigate the spread of the virus.’