DENVER | Colorado officials are encouraging all K-12 schools across the state to participate in a new free COVID-19 testing program the state is offering to keep the transmission of the virus low during the new school year.
Gov. Jared Polis announced the program at a Thursday news conference, where he said the state is looking into the possibility of offering students financial incentives for participating.
Reporters pressed Polis whether he would impose a mask mandate for schools, as the issue becomes increasingly controversial in school districts across the state.
He declined, citing a relatively low hospitalization rate of COVID-19 victims, but he did not rule out a mandate in the future. He focused his remarks on a proposal to help schools test students and staff for coronavirus infections.
The screening program is being funded through federal COVID-19 relief money and is free of charge for school districts. The program will consist of weekly rapid antigen tests provided on a voluntary basis to students and employees.
Polis said the state is continuing to see a rise in COVID-19 cases, particularly among the unvaccinated. However, Colorado is still on the low end of the national rise caused by the delta variant.
There are currently 501 people hospitalized with COVID-19 statewide. Of those, seven are under 10 years old and 10 are between the ages of 11 and 19, Polis said. Infection and death rates continue to be highest for people in their 70s and 80s.
Current conditions are not in any danger of overwhelming the state’s hospital capacity, he said.
As the new school year begins, along with encouraging school districts to add regular COVID-19 testing to its repertoire of mitigation strategies, the state will also continue to deliver KN95 masks to school districts for employees to wear as it did last year.
Maintaining in-person learning is the state’s highest priority for this school year, Polis said.
“It is our top priority to keep in-person education,” he said, saying that Colorado’s students can’t afford to miss any more in-person education than they already have.
The state has turned most pandemic decisions over to local control, and Polis said that county health departments and school boards should feel empowered to make the decisions they feel are necessary for their community to have a safe learning environment.
The state is currently using hospital capacity as its main factor to determine whether more stringent public health orders could need to be reimposed in the future.
Another factor it is taking into consideration is whether in-person learning is at risk, Polis said. If schools become unable to have safe in-person learning without mask mandates, the state will look into reimposing them or requiring other mitigation strategies.
“If we see that districts are failing to be able to stay in person simply because kids aren’t wearing masks, we will absolutely look at taking action,” Polis said. “We will not allow hang ups around particular prevention protocols to prevent kids from being in-person in school, which is the best environment to learn.”