Rapid COVID tests now available at Merced County schools, as new cases surge statewide

With in-person classes now back in session in Merced County, local education officials say all local K-12 school districts have picked up COVID test kits, available to students and families upon request.

Merced County Office of Education received 51,000 rapid COVID-19 test kits from the state last week. Merced County also keeps a list of testing locations on its website.

The kits for schools arrived as Merced County, like the rest of California, faces a daunting level of new COVID infections, much of which is due to the highly-contagious omicron variant.

As of Tuesday, 50,999 cases were confirmed in Merced County since the pandemic’s start, which means the county has added 1,994 new cases since Thursday last week. That’s one of the biggest spikes in new COVID cases the county has ever seen.

As of Tuesday the virus had killed a total of 713 residents — an increase of three deaths since Thursday, according to the Merced County Department of Public Health’s latest numbers. The department reported 40 active hospitalizations of Merced County residents on Tuesday.

The California Department of Public Health reported Merced County only had two available ICU beds as of Monday.

At this time, only 45.06% of Merced County residents are fully vaccinated.

Rapid tests on hand

Local districts have subsequently been getting the kits to their individual schools, according to Nathan Quevedo, Merced County Office of Education spokesperson.

Parents or families who are interested in getting a test kit should contact their local district or school.

Merced Union High School District, one of the biggest districts in the county, received 22,000 test kits last week. “Those are at the sites ready for distribution whenever they’re asked for,” said Sam Yniguez, MUHSD public information officer..

“The way we’re doing it is we have them at site, so we’re not actively distributing them. We’re leaving it to families where if they want one, they can ask for it and we’ll give it to them.”

Each school in the Merced Union High School District got 1,500 test kits, and each test kit contained two tests, Golden Valley High School Principal Kevin Swartwood said.

Swartwood said he expects there will be enough test kits to go around at his campus.. “We’re looking good for testing,” he said.

Testing is offered at each of the district’s nine high schools. If a student feels sick, they are free to take a kit home or get tested at school.

“If they test positive, there’s a quarantine, and we do a contact tracing process, and those students and staff are alerted to get tested. There hasn’t been a major change in our protocols,” Yniguez said.

MUHSD district officials didn’t report any closed classrooms due to COVID-19 as of Tuesday, but did say the Merced County Public Health Department decides whether to close down a classroom or school in the event of an outbreak.

The Los Banos Unified School District reported having an ample supply of test kits distributed from MCOE.

LBUSD officials say they continue to follow the same COVID-19 protocols in place before winter break. The district, rather than individual school sites, handles testing. “Our surveillance testing is conducted at our district office,” said Mark Marshall, public information officer for the Los Banos Unified School District.

Marshall said there are schools in Los Banos Unified who closed classes due outbreaks. An outbreak is defined as three or more people who are diagnosed with COVID-19 within a two-week window and who had identifiable connections to each other at school, with no known connections outside of school.

According to the Merced County Public Health Department’s COVID-19 dashboard, schools in active outbreak status include:

Atwater High

Buhach Colony High

Delhi High

Golden Valley High

Gustine High

Livingston High

Merced High

El Capitan High

Los Banos High

Hoover Middle

Delhi Middle

Henry Miller Elementary

Elim Elementary

Grasslands Elementary

Merced Springs Elementary

Peggy Heller

Planada Elementary

Sheehy Elementary

Sybil Crookham Preschool

Volta Elementary School

Westside Union Elementary

Winfield Elementary

Yamato Colony Elementary

This story was originally published January 11, 2022 at 3:21 PM.