City of Jena provides free rapid tests for school children (grades 1-6)

The city of Jena enables free rapid tests for school children (grades 1-6). The rapid tests in the form of qualified spit tests will be delivered to Jena schools from Monday, 22.03.2021 and will initially be available to pupils in grades 1-6. After an evaluation phase, a decision will be made on a gradual expansion of the offer.

Lord Mayor Dr. Thomas Nitzsche said: "Vaccination, digital contact tracing with LUCA and rapid tests for the early interruption of infection chains are considered to be the successful measures for further pandemic containment. We cannot shape the vaccination issue locally. But we are at the forefront of the other two topics and are creating offers for the Jena population that are not currently available through the state of Thuringia."

Mayor Christian Gerlitz added: "Particularly against the backdrop of the very dynamic infection situation, the further spread of mutation cases and numerous infections that have become apparent at schools and daycare centers in recent weeks, we have to act quickly. It was important to me that after the early and successful start of the test centers for Jena citizens, we now quickly create an offer especially adapted to elementary schools. With the free and voluntary tests at schools also for grades 1-6, we can give parents, teachers and the students more security and break infection chains very early. I am grateful that the DRK has agreed to take over the organization. Schools cannot be left alone with this task."

For crisis team leader Benjamin Koppe, it is clear that in addition to the new Jena offer, there is an urgent need for a testing strategy for the whole of Thuringia: "Parents and teachers have been concerned about this issue for weeks. In this context, the Ministry of Education cannot be serious in its response by relying solely on voluntary and self-testing measures. Rather, one must again think about a comprehensive offer for schools and kindergartens and at the same time spare no effort to deploy medically trained personnel in a targeted manner."

The principals of all Jena schools will be informed today about the procedure of the rapid tests and will receive educational materials to pass on to parents. The tests will only be carried out with the prior consent of the parents. The city of Jena relies on the German Red Cross Jena-Eisenberg-Stadtroda as a project partner to accompany the tests with trained personnel. This is the only way to achieve a high level of acceptance, so that hopefully many pupils will make use of the offer. If the test results are positive, PCR tests will be carried out.