Voluntary in-school COVID-19 testing set to begin

Students at a few Saskatchewan schools are getting the chance to be tested for COVID-19, but Donna Schell’s daughter won’t be one of them.

The province is bringing in voluntary in-school testing for the virus. It will be available at Campbell Collegiate in Regina on Wednesday, Holy Cross High School in Saskatoon on Thursday and Carlton Comprehensive High School in Prince Albert on Thursday and Friday.

Schell said her daughter made the choice to not get tested.

“She has seen the test on the news and things like that and she has seen the cotton swabs go up people’s nose and that sort of thing. We were comfortable with letting her make that decision,” Schell told the Greg Morgan Morning Show on Tuesday.

“She’s not somebody that gets sick very often so I don’t believe she’s one of the people who’s a higher risk to transmit it.”

Schell believes the testing is a good idea but people who are at a higher risk should be the ones to get it done.

“I feel like having all these extra tests done is a benefit to the people that actually need them when there’s going to be long wait times for labs and things like that to get the results back,” Schell said.

And she doesn’t believe her daughter falls into that category.

“One of the things I’ve said is that they keep saying people could be asymptomatic and they’re not showing symptoms. I kind of feel if people around us aren’t getting sick, we (don’t) have it. We should be passing it along to people if we actually had something,” Schell said.

Three schools in Saskatoon already have announced positive COVID-19 tests, including Holy Cross.