The Los Angeles Unified School District’s massive COVID-19 testing program could help the county learn more about transmission, breakthrough infections and what safety precautions are needed to keep kids in school.
"It's a very unique testing program. The scale is unprecedented," said Moira Inkelas, a professor of public health at UCLA.
The district is doing regular screenings of all staff and students, regardless of vaccination status. That's close to half a million tests a week.
Researchers at UCLA have gotten funding from the National Institutes of Health to study how this surveillance testing affects in-school transmission and attendance and whether racial, ethnic and economic disparities play a role.
"It provides the first insight into an under-tested population. We haven’t really known what the rate is for school-aged children," said Inkelas.
She said the testing program could help catch cases early not just among students and staff but also their close contacts off campus
"While the program is operating at this scale, it will provide families insight into people at home who may be positive that they had not realized," she added.
All this regular testing could help bring down the county's overall transmission rate, according to Inkelas.