SUSAN JOHNS Wed, 05/12/2021 - 8:30am
Is regularly pool-testing students and adults for COVID–19 doable, and could it help prevent spread? Wiscasset School Committee listened and asked questions Tuesday night, May 11 as staff nurse Marilyn Sprague explained the program she said the state is encouraging. After hearing Sprague’s answers and Wiscasset Middle High School Assistant Principal-Athletic Director Warren Cossette’s support for the idea, the committee gave Sprague the go-ahead.
According to the discussion, if the department went through with the pool testing, it would likely start next fall, the department would first be charged $185 for a waiver involving the lab testing; classes or other pools of students and adults would, unless they opt out, take nasal samples with swabs that would then go to Boston for testing, the department would have results within 24 hours, and any positives would mean more testing to find who it was. Pool testing aims to detect a cas