Cookies on this website

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you click 'Accept all cookies' we'll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies and you won't see this message again. If you click 'Reject all non-essential cookies' only necessary cookies providing core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility will be enabled. Click 'Find out more' for information on how to change your cookie settings.

A study by the University of Oxford has found that daily testing of secondary school students who were in contact with someone with COVID-19 was just as effective in controlling school transmission as the current 10-day contact isolation policy.

Girl being throat swabbed

The independent study, sponsored by the Department of Health and Social Care and supported by the Department for Education and Office for National Statistics, ran between April and June 2021. The results were published today in pre-print.

201 secondary schools and colleges of further education were randomised into two groups. Over 200,000 students and 20,000 staff participated. Half of the schools continued a standard policy of routine mass testing, and isolation for close contacts of positive cases for 10 days. The second group of schools invited close contacts of positive cases to come to school and take lateral flow tests in a supervised school testing site over 7 days. Those who chose to do so were released from isolation to attend school or college if they tested negative for COVID-19. Around half of all eligible students and staff chose to do daily testing. Close contacts, from either group of the study, were invited to provide a research PCR test for COVID-19 on day 2 and 7 following contact, in order to determine how many close contacts became infected.

Read the full story on the University of Oxford website

Similar stories

Can humans hibernate?

Illuminating new TEDx Talk from Professor of Sleep Physiology Vladyslav Vyazovskiy

Athena Swan Gold Award success for Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences

The award reflects the Department’s commitment to representation, progression and success for all. It acknowledges the innovative policies and practices developed across the department and the detailed action plans for improvement.

RECOVERY trial team awarded MRC Impact Prize for Outstanding Team Impact

The Medical Research Council Prize Committee has awarded the RECOVERY trial team the MRC Impact Prize 2022 for Outstanding Team Impact.

Professor Sir Chris Whitty brings greater understanding of epidemics to Oxford

Chief Medical Officer of England Professor Sir Chris Whitty KCB FMedSci delivers the Sherrington Prize Lecture: Public Understanding of Science to an audience of Oxford staff and students.

Multiple Debilitating Pains – New global study shows the experience of Endometriosis is rooted in a person’s genetics

Researchers at the University of Oxford in collaboration with 25 teams across the world have published the largest study to date of the genetic basis of endometriosis.

Study shows delaying treatment for localised prostate cancer does not increase mortality risk

Active monitoring of prostate cancer has the same high survival rates after 15 years as radiotherapy or surgery, reports the largest study of its kind.