EAST LANSING, Mich. — Multiple school districts, including the Ingham Intermediate School District, Lansing School District and Williamston Community Schools, have set up rapid COVID-19 testing sites for students returning from spring break.
"Coming back on spring break where people traveling may have gotten out and about with nice, warm weather, we just wanted an opportunity for people to have the option to get tested if they felt the need," said Paige Paulsen, athletic director and enrichment director at Williamston Community Schools.
"Now, obviously, it takes on a little more significance with where we stand in the state now," he said.
On April 10, Ingham County reported 174 new cases of COVID-19, as the county continues to trend upward. This month has been the worst month for cases in Ingham County since the start of the pandemic, according to the New York Times.
Ingham Intermediate School District in Mason offered rapid testing on Sunday, as did Williamston High School.
Abigail Cobb, 14, Ashley Stover, 15, and Ava Broka, 15, all members of the Williamston girls soccer team, got tested as part of the weekly athletic testing ordered by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.
"It's important to get tested so that you (know you) didn't bring it back from another country," said Broka, who spent five days of her spring break in Costa Rica. "You don't want to have your team quarantine and not be able to play."
"Or make the whole team get disqualified because one person tests positive," added Stover, who traveled to Florida for her spring break.
Cobb, who stayed home over the break, said, "It's important we all stay safe."
Cobb, Stover and Broka said the process took about five minutes.
Paulsen said it's an assembly-line process where, "they'll be lined and distanced coming in...they come in, we'll have... consent forms to sign. It's a rapid antigen test, they swab their own nasal cavity, we put it in the test with the reacting agent and they're free to go."
There will be additional rapid testing at Lansing Eastern High School on Tuesday from noon to 6 p.m. and again at Ingham Intermediate School District in Mason on Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
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