Ministry requires antigen test from all students to return to school

All students require antigen test – recovered, vaccinated, or not: Ministry

The Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MoEHE) has announced that students will return to schools and kindergartens with full in-person attendance from Sunday, January 30.

In addition to its recent announcement on Wednesday, the Ministry said that schools in the country will allow students only after submitting a parent declaration form stating that the antigen test was done at home and results were negative.

Read also: Back to School in Qatar with Full Attendance from Jan 30

The antigen test for students will be applied for two (2) weeks, to begin with, and after that, the situation will be monitored and new measures will be taken accordingly, a senior official at the MoEHE said.

This was announced by Mohamed Al Maraghi, Director of the Health and Safety Department at the Ministry, in a phone call to Qatar TV.

“We ask the parents to test for two weeks, and after that, we will study the situation, and then we could follow new procedures or continue with these measures. We will conduct a survey for these two weeks, and accordingly, a decision will be taken,” he added.

Al Maraghi stressed that parents need to only send the declaration form with the students to the school showing a negative result. Al Maraghi said that “all students needed rapid test, starting from kindergarten, whether they are recovering, vaccinated or unvaccinated. Everyone must be tested in the first two weeks.”

“The guardian must test the child and if the result is negative, fill out the declaration form, print it and send it with the student to the school,” he said.

Al Maraghi confirmed that all students in government schools will be given two test kits and the Ministry of Health has provided 150,000 devices to these schools

“In government schools, if some students tested positive and are quarantined at homes, online option will be provided,” he added.

While, schools in Qatar have started sending parent/guardian declaration form for antigen test. The declaration form states the student name, School Name, QID, Class, Examination date and time and the test results.

Parents/guardian should acknowledge that the information submitted in the form is correct. Those tested negative can attend the school once they present the declaration form.

Those tested positive or those with defective result must not attend the school and visit the nearest Health Centre and follow the MoPH procedures.

Here is how to perform a home Rapid Antigen Test on your child:

What is a Rapid Antigen Test (RAT)?

• A test that is intended to provide fast and reasonably accurate screening for Covid-19 on respiratory specimens at the point
of care.
• It can be used in clinical and non-clinical settings
• It can detect COVID-19 virus antigen in the first week of infection when most infectious.
• Any positive antigen tests will need to be confirmed by PCR testing.