Corona tests with lollipops are still manageable for parents of small children. But what about nose tests? NRW is planning a change.
Düsseldorf (dpa / lnw) - In the future, daycare children in North Rhine-Westphalia should be able to be tested for the corona virus with nasal instead of lollipop tests. The NRW Family Ministry has launched a tender for the tests, as a spokeswoman confirmed at the request of the German Press Agency in Düsseldorf.
According to new findings, nasal tests are more reliable, she explained the planned change. Parents don't have to worry about sticking test sticks deep into their children's little noses. A swab from the front area of a sniffle is enough, said the spokeswoman.
In North Rhine-Westphalia, since the end of the summer holidays, parents of daycare children have been given eight self-tests per month so that they can test their offspring at home on a voluntary basis. The offer is also available to childminders and special education groups. According to the state’s Corona Protection Ordinance, caregivers or carriers can make the presence of a child with relevant signs of a respiratory disease in the facility dependent on a daily negative test.
The public tender by the Ministry of Family Affairs is looking for a supplier who can deliver around 1.5 million nasal antigen self-tests to 11,000 delivery locations nationwide every week. A test is required, which can be used with the help of a swab in the front area of the nose, it says there.
To ensure that the procedure does not degenerate into torture for children and parents, the following is stated: "Antigen self-tests that only require a sample to be taken from the nasopharynx are expressly excluded." The Ministry of Family Affairs reserves the right to review the suitability of the test for small children through scientific expertise.
The start of the contract is scheduled for November 21 of this year. The tender contains an option to extend the delivery period several times. So far, however, budget funds have only been secured for the current year. The estimated maximum retrieval was 277.4 million tests.
The contractor must set up an adequately staffed telephone hotline for any queries from the approximately 11,000 points of use and must be able to respond to email queries at short notice. In addition, the provider must also provide manufacturer information on the Internet in English, Turkish, Arabic, Russian, Romanian, Spanish, Portuguese and Ukrainian.
