Compliance with New York State Winter COVID-19 Plan Drives Demand for Applied DNA’s Pooled Surveillance Testing Program - Seite 2

For Educators:

The safeCircle program for schools, pre-K through high school, is designed to minimize COVID-19 clusters in the classroom. It utilizes the Company’s high-sensitivity assay in periodic pooled testing of students, faculty, and staff using saliva or non-invasive anterior (lower) nasal swabs and can detect as little as two copies of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the pool. Participation does not require a prescription, and aggregate results are typically returned to a school within 24 hours.

With the assay’s sensitivity, the platform is capable of detecting the virus in infected individuals, potentially before they become infectious. The program uses testing in pools of 5 individuals to avoid the potential for the dilution of an early positive sample. This compares to the pooling of up to 25 individuals by other surveillance testing providers at the cost of accuracy that could result in virus spread.

Educator Testimonials:

John Cissel, Head of School at Harbor Country Day School in St. James, NY, stated: “The safeCircle team of nurses, technicians, and scientists have made our students, their parents, and our faculty and staff very comfortable with their testing program, and our weekly surveillance testing of everyone in the building has given all of us a sense of security. Their informative approach has increased our awareness and helped us to keep the COVID virus at bay as we have had only one positive case to date.”

Robert Stark, Headmaster of the Laurel Hill School in East Setauket, NY, stated, “The safeCircle program recently identified a very early infection in our population, so early in fact, that we were able to take the appropriate steps to prevent any spread. Surveillance testing works, and our students, their families and our faculty and staff are safer because of it.”

Joshua Crane, Head of School at the Stony Brook School, NY, summarized: “We contacted Applied DNA after learning of a small cluster of students who tested positive. The safeCircle team was on campus by that afternoon, sampled our entire residential population of students and faculty into the evening, and had aggregate results to us by morning. In an era where speed and accuracy are paramount, Applied DNA delivered both, enabling us to continue school safely. I can’t say enough about their customer service and ability to make a potentially stressful process stress free.”