Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said Wednesday that over 250,000 saliva tests will be provided to school and child care employees in effort to limit exposures and disease spread
Walz announced that teachers, school staff, and childcare providers across the state have received access to their free COVID-19 saliva tests.
The Minnesota Department of Education has emailed thousands of unique codes that can be used to request a saliva test, which schools will distribute to all staff currently employed by Minnesota’s school districts, charter schools, tribal schools, and nonpublic schools.
Additionally, the Department of Human Services has provided codes to all staff currently working in licensed child care settings and certified centers.
Providing testing to roughly 250,000 education and child care professionals is estimated to cost the state $6 million. Insurers will first be billed for medically necessary tests and uninsured individuals will be covered via federal Health Resources and Services Administration funding.
