Tuesday, Jan. 11, marks the first day that McLean High School implemented the random COVID-19 testings for students who opted to participate. COVID-19 testing is not something new to McLean, although this particular way of doing testing is. Currently, McLean has a pool of 200 students who have signed up. 

“[The new testing system] was implemented through FCPS,” Director of Student Activities Greg Miller said. 

With this new system, every week, McLean High School is eligible to test students every Tuesday and Thursday for COVID-19 outside of normal testing because of symptoms or contact tracing. 

“20 [students] are randomly selected each week to get tested,” Miller said.  

Selected students for testing are notified the day before the test and are tested the next day of that week. On the day of testing, students receive a pass during their first period so they can report to the main office for testing at some point in the last period. Many students signed up out of concern because of the unprecedented number of daily COVID-19 cases.

“I opted into [COVID-19] testing because of the outbreak of cases these past few weeks,” senior Reehan Marshall said.

This new system is largely seen as a step in the right direction to combat recent COVID-19 outbreaks. However, there is apprehension that the action taken by FCPS and McLean is not enough to suppress the new Omicron variant. 

“Contact tracing is a flawed policy that needs to be fixed. Furthermore, since FCPS has no plans of going virtual, they should have more efficient ways of stopping the spread of COVID-19,” senior Zora Rodgers said. 

While FCPS has not stated that they have any intention of going virtual, many students have voiced their concern, pushing to implement a virtual learning option. 

“School[s] should offer a hybrid approach to learning because, with many people’s circumstances, the opportunity [for virtual learning] is beneficial,” Marshall said. 

Here is the link to sign up for the FCPS randomized COVID-19 testing: https://fcpstestingsite.com/?utm_content=&utm_medium=email&utm_name=&utm_source=govdelivery&utm_term=

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Select "Sign Up" to create an account for the FCPS randomized COIVD-19 testing.