Tel Aviv to begin coronavirus testing for high school students

The tests will be administered to 11th and 12th graders and teachers and school staff at 25 Tel Aviv high schools.

School boys wear costumes as a reference to coronavirus during the Jewish holiday of Purim, Jerusalem, March 8 2020 (photo credit: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun)
School boys wear costumes as a reference to coronavirus during the Jewish holiday of Purim, Jerusalem, March 8 2020
(photo credit: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun)
The Tel Aviv Municipality and Ichilov Hospital will begin rapid coronavirus antigen testing for students and teachers Sunday, the municipality announced. The tests will be administered as part of the "Education Shield" program designed to make the return to high schools safer for Tel Aviv's youth.
The program was part of an arrangement for the return to schools suggested by Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai to the health and education ministers. The arrangement was drafted in participation with Ichilov experts including the former coronavirus commissioner, CEO of Sourasky Medical Center Prof Ronni Gamzu.
The tests will be administered to 11th and 12th graders and teachers and school staff at 25 Tel Aviv high schools. Mobile testing units, staffed by Ichilov Hospital medical personnel will travel in between the schools, said the municipality.
The program is expected to take a week, and all of the data collected will be tracked. The tests are antigen tests that return results within 15 minutes.