Students with positive result from rapid test should still self-isolate if second laboratory test is negative, minister suggests

Secondary school children who receive a positive result after taking a rapid Covid test will have to self-isolate even if a second follow-up laboratory test produces a negative result, a government minister has confirmed.

As schools across England begin welcoming millions of children back to classrooms — the first major step in easing the national lockdown — a new testing regime will come into force in an attempt to curb the spread of coronavirus.

Upon returning, students in secondary schools and colleges will have to take three quick turnaround tests onsite under supervision, before being asked to perform twice-weekly rapid tests at home.

Questioned on the new testing system, Vicky Ford, the children’s minister, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “If they test positive then they shouldn’t be in school. 

“The lateral flow test as we heard yesterday from Public Health England — they’ve got less 1 in 1,000 chance of having a false positive. So if they test positive they should stay out of school.”

Presented with the situation of a child testing positive using a self-administered rapid lateral flow device (LFD) test at home, who then received a negative result after using a laboratory test — known as a PCR test — Ms Ford suggested they would still have to complete their 10-day self-isolation period.

“The first priority is to make sure we keep the Covid out of the classrooms, with these regular tests,” she stressed.

“The chance of a lateral flow test giving a false positive are actually very low. There will obviously be discussions with the pupils and their families if they then have the negative test later.”

“The really important thing here is to make sure we can keep schools open and minimise the risk of having Covid in the classrooms and that is why people who’ve had the test that shows they have got Covid through the lateral flow test, we should not take the risk of having the child in the classroom.

Quizzed on whether a laboratory test could override the lateral flow test, the minister went on: “They should not take the risk. We all want to make sure that we can keep Covid out of the classrooms here.”

Public Health England’s Covid-19 strategic response director Dr Susan Hopkins reiterated on BBC’s Andrew Marr programme that the risk of false positives was “extremely low, less than in a thousand”, adding: “We would expect that that would be the same risk with PRC tests. No test is perfect.”

However, speaking at the weekend professor Sheila Bird, a member of the Royal Statistical Society, suggested every positive quick-result test of a school pupils should be checked with a PCR test to ensure it was accurate.

“In the present circumstances when infection incidence is low, the false positive rate with lateral flow tests remains to be absolutely determined in the context of schools but may be between one and three per 1,000 children. So to differentiate a false positive from a true positive is to do that PCR confirmation.”

As children begin heading back to classrooms across the country, professor Calum Semple, a member of the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), added it was “inevitable that we will see a rise in cases”, but it was not so important if the reproduction number rose slightly.

The advice for teachers “is going to be wearing face masks, being careful in the common room - their colleagues are more of a risk to them than the children,” he told BBC Breakfast.

Labour is also urging the government to introduce catch-up breakfast clubs before school to help students recover from 109 days of face-to-face learning they missed due to the pandemic.

“The Government’s catch-up plans fall woefully short of the support needed to help children recover from the pandemic, condemning the life chances of a generation of young people,” claimed the shadow education secretary Kate Green.

She added: “Ministers should listen to Labour‘s call for breakfast clubs to give every child a healthy breakfast, more time to play with their friends and extra time for teachers to provide targeted catch-up support. The government must be more ambitious for children’s recovery.”