Why COVID-19 testing in schools will be key this fall as more students return to classroom

As schools prepare to have more students in-person in the fall, health experts say strategic testing will continue to play a major role.

Thanks to regular, strategic COVID-19 testing, over a dozen Utah high schools were able to save more than 100,000 days of in-person learning this winter and likely helped reduce spread of the virus, a recent analysis from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found. As schools prepare to have more students in-person in the fall, health experts say strategic testing will continue to play a major role in helping to reduce transmission and keep doors open, especially if other mitigation measures, like physical distancing, are reduced. Utah has been recognized as an early adopter of COVID-19 testing as a mitigation strategy in schools. Its testing strategies have been "hugely successful," Kendra Babitz, the COVID-19 state testing coordinator at the Utah Department of Health, told ABC News. "We were really excited to highlight the success of these strategies, amid all of the chaos and lots of work that was required to bring them into fruition," Babitz said.