Students are forced to take their OWN Covid tests at school while the nurse watches

Students perform Covid tests on themselves despite fears about their effectiveness in self-administration.

Students at Oasis Academy in Coulsdon, Surrey were given the kits the Monday before the regime began.

Following the announcement of the last national lockdown, only vulnerable children or those whose parents are key workers were allowed to attend classes in person. However, figures suggest that up to 20% of students could attend schools.

They were given instructions by the nurses on how to conduct the tests themselves and were supervised by them, much like some walk-in testing centers operate.

The idea is that fewer medical experts or volunteers are needed so that more people can be tested more quickly.

But despite multiple studies, it comes to be seen that lateral flow tests – if self administered – could miss cases due to the force and depth required to collect a sample.

Experts recommend that a trained nurse or professional perform the swab insertion to get to the required site, which can be extremely uncomfortable.

Student Ruby Soden receives instructions on how to self-administer her coronavirus test

Student Henry Parker is given instructions and equipment to perform his virus test

John Murphy, CEO of Oasis Trust, said on the Monday before the general school lockdown and closure, “We know for a fact that our young people, with their teachers and their friends in the classroom, are making the best progress in quality initial education.

& # 39; Therefore, we can be sure that mass testing in schools will give our children, parents, teachers and staff additional confidence and have the potential to significantly reduce learning disabilities alongside our existing Covid controls.

"In January we will be testing the tests in a number of our schools before implementing them in all of our secondary schools across the country."

Schools received extensive online training modules with 1,500 military personnel to provide advice and guidance on setting up the process.

Student Lily Mae Milliman is doing her COVID-19 test with a mirror to aid in using the swab

After use, the swab is placed in a reactant that will indicate if the user has Covid

The tests were mailed to schools before they closed under the UK's new lockdown

There is a concern that self-conducted testing may miss cases due to the depth of swab collection required

Professional swabs are longer and can be painful when administered by a nurse

Infectious disease specialists say it is more likely when people use swabs

However, experts warned last year that some self-tests are less accurate because they use shorter swabs and don't have to be inserted as deep into the nose.

And in December, a study in the British Medical Journal warned that the rapid test kits only detect 48.89% of Covid-19 infections in asymptomatic people.

The polymerase chain reaction test (PCR) is more accurate and has achieved better detection results.

The BMJ report states: "Innova Lateral Flow's SARS-CoV-2 antigen test failed to detect three out of ten cases with the highest viral load in preliminary data from field evaluation of tests in asymptomatic individuals."

The instructions for some tests say, "No force is required and you don't have to push far into your nostril."

However, professionally used swabs, which are much longer and designed to take samples from the "bottom" of the nose, can cause people to choke, water their eyes, or even nosebleeds if done properly.

Infectious disease specialists say people are more likely to make swabs themselves – which is notoriously difficult even for trained health professionals. False negative results mean that people infected with the virus are mistakenly told that they are in good health.

Under current UK guidelines, there is no rule to stay home after a negative test, even if they have symptoms. Medics say the UK is not keeping up with other countries like New Zealand – where the Covid-19 outbreak was quickly contained, making the tests less important and running them multiple times.

Norwich-based researcher Dr. University and College Union Equality Officer Katherine Deane is concerned about how effective infection control will be.

She told the Eastern Daily Press: "Schools do not have infection control experts, so the precision of the setup, cleaning of the area, wearing of personal protective equipment, and ventilation are all concerns.

“If you have a swab test it can lead to a cough – a gag reflex, and the droplets go up in the air.

“The big ones will fall quickly, but the good ones can stay in the air for up to an hour.

“And yet the idea of ​​the test is that you have one student wipe it down, clean up, and five minutes later the next student gets tested.

"This means supervisors may have a higher risk of infection. If infection control is not done carefully, venues are at risk of super-spreader events happening."

Professor Jon Deeks, a biostatistics expert at the University of Birmingham, said: “A single negative test result does not rule out the disease. It's so easy to miss the virus – they give off a lot of false negatives. & # 39;

Research has shown that up to 30 percent of professional swab tests produce false negative results, meaning the number of positive cases may be underestimated by thousands.

It's not clear how imprecise self-smears are, even though they are done over 60,000 times a day in the UK. The Ministry of Health will not publish any data on the false negative rates of its tests.