NOLA-PS Adds New Walk-Up COVID-19 Testing to Its Mobile Vaccination & Testing Programs

Starting today, weekly walk-up COVID-19 testing available Tuesdays & Thursdays

(New Orleans – August 17) – NOLA Public Schools (NOLA-PS) is proud to announce its partnering with CORE Response New Orleans to offer walk-up COVID-19 testing to students, teachers, staff, and their families during the following days and times, starting today:

• Tuesdays from 3-6PM – NOLA-PS Central Office (2410 Westbend Parkway)
• Fridays from 3-6PM – Living School (6003 Bullard Avenue)

The increased testing is being added in response to the increased need for testing citywide. The testing sites will use non-invasive saliva PCR tests, with results available in 2 to 3 days. There will be no cost associated with these testing opportunities and insurance will not be billed.

"We're just adding a few more tools to our arsenal to help combat COVID-19 and keep it out of our school community," said Superintendent Dr. Henderson Lewis, Jr. "We know regular testing, along with increasing our vaccination rate are key to protecting our students and staff, and we will continue to look for ways to provide more access to these health measures for our community of schools."

Since April, NOLA-PS, in partnership with CORE New Orleans, has administered more than 4,000 COVID-19 tests to students and staff.

"Last week, over 1,000 students and staff were tested. The week before that, more than 500 tests were done," said NOLA-PS Chief Operations Officer Tiffany Delcour. "I'm proud of the fact that we were able to double our testing rate in 7 days. We are on the right path and we will continue to increase access to testing, as a way to keep the virus out of our schools."

On the vaccination front, more than 1,000 students throughout our community of schools have been vaccinated, thanks to the District's Mobile Vaccine Program.

The program kicked off in the spring and went into high gear during the summer break. NOLA-PS, in partnership with CORE, CrescentCare, DePaul Community Health Centers (DCHC), and Ochsner, expanded its mobile COVID-19 vaccine pilot program to eligible students 12 years and older, at the beginning of June.

More than 35 schools and summer programs participated in the program and opened their campuses for the vaccine drives. The NOLA-PS mobile vaccination opportunity has been offered to all schools interested in providing the service on their campuses and is on-going.

"We are so thankful to our schools for participating in our mobile vaccination program. We know vaccines save lives and providing access to our students 12 and older is a bright step in protecting the health and safety of our school community," said Dr. Lewis. "The more our school community gets vaccinated, and the community in general, the closer we'll all be to getting our school life back to normal."

NOLA-PS is continuing to work with its community health partners to provide access to Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine for students 12 and older, with parental consent. CORE is also offering the Johnson & Johnson one-shot vaccine to students who are 18.

Last week, one of our vaccine partners, CrescentCare, received a $90,000 donation to administer thousands of vaccinations to NOLA-PS students over the next few months. Thanks to funding from the United Way of Southeast Louisiana, the Greater New Orleans Foundation (GNOF), and Entergy New Orleans, this initiative will build upon the success of NOLA-PS' mobile vaccine program, which has focused on high school athletic teams and extracurricular groups. The donation will enable the scaling of this model citywide and will be critical to protecting young people and our community from COVID-19.

The District is committed to continuing to provide access to the vaccine for students, staff, and their families throughout the 2021-2022 school year. We encourage families to reach out to the leadership of their schools to see if they're offering the vaccine through the NOLA-PS mobile vaccination program or through other means. Here is a list of current schools offering the mobile vaccine opportunity.

Providing access to the vaccine falls in line with the District's COVID Guidance measures of keeping our community of schools safe. Ultimately, NOLA-PS' goal is to help protect the health and safety of our students and their families and help them feel more comfortable about remaining in in-person learning for the new school year.

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About NOLA Public Schools: NOLA Public Schools is the public school district for Orleans Parish. It includes the district's administration and elected school board, known as the Orleans Parish School Board. NOLA Public Schools currently oversees 76 public schools and is led by Superintendent Dr. Henderson Lewis, Jr.

For more information, visit www.nolapublicschools.com. For updates, follow NOLA Public Schools on Facebook @NOLAPublicSchools, Instagram @nolaps and Twitter @NOLAPSchools.