No masks are required for public school students in the upcoming school year, but in-school testing will be available at county schools.

The Lincoln County School District has been approved by the Mississippi State Department of Health to offer COVID testing of students on-campus during the 2021-2022 school year.

MSDH has provided the district with 300 initial tests, superintendent Dr. David Martin said, but he is requesting an additional 10,000.

Nurses at each of the district’s four campuses can administer the tests to any student who has been exposed to the virus. The non-invasive swab provides a positive or negative test within three to five minutes, Martin said, and prevents students from missing instruction days to be tested or await results.

“If a child is exposed and does not test positive, they can stay at school,” Martin said. “The test then needs to be re-administered every two days up to four tests.”

With the potential that multiple students will need to be tested up to four times each, the superintendent said 300 tests would not last very long across the four campuses.

“We’re requesting the additional tests because we’d rather have them and not need them than vice versa,” he said.

If a student gets a positive result on any of the tests, he or she will be sent home for quarantine.

Masks will not be required on campus during school or school activities, but anyone who wishes to wear one will be allowed to do so, and hand sanitation sites will still be provided, Martin said.