The project will provide a retrospective evaluation of COVID-19 testing procedures within schools during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. This will be done by assessing the impact of COVID-19 testing on the following:
Impact on Student and Staff Absenteeism: This objective seeks to understand how testing measures contributed to reducing absenteeism rates and ensuring continuity in educational activities.
Association with Community Transmission Reduction: This objective aims to determine the extent to which testing in schools played a role in mitigating the spread of the virus beyond the school environment.
Indirect Benefits on Public Health Outcomes: This objective aims to identify and evaluate the indirect benefits of school based testing on broader public health outcomes, to quantify the association between school testing and hospitalisations and deaths in the general population.