One day, when Alejandra Ortega was outside her daughter Sophia's elementary school waiting for the 8-year-old to have her temperature taken — a routine coronavirus precaution — a school employee approached, form in hand.
Would Ortega sign a release form so Sophia could be tested for the coronavirus twice a week? It only takes 15 minutes for the results, the woman told her, so kids can be screened for COVID-19 before entering the building.
“I think my first thought was, ‘No, my daughter’s definitely not going to want to participate,’ ” Ortega said.
When Ortega had received her own coronavirus test, it was less than pleasant.
“I did the nose swab, and so I wasn't too keen on it,” she said, referring to what some have described as a Q-tip up the nose to the brain.
She discussed the offer to test Sophia twice a week with her husband.
"We're like, well, this might not be a good idea,” she said.
But the tests allow for the kids themselves to insert the swab, into the lower part of their nose. When she told her daughter, she seemed all right with it.
“For me it was like, OK, you can try once. If you feel uncomfortable, you don't have to,” Ortega said.
These self-administered swabs are part of rapid COVID-19 antigen testing, now used by nine school systems across California willing to pilot the twice-weekly testing of all students who have parental permission. Part of an attempt to reopen campuses, the program is also under consideration by several more districts, and the surveillance testing of students it offers could help build confidence in the tests as a way to prevent coronavirus transmission in schools, as well as limit the spread of the disease in communities.