Results of 3rd round of Austrian SARS-CoV-2 School Monitoring released

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The Austrian SARS-CoV-2 School Monitoring consortium headed by Michael Wagner released the results of the third measurement round. More than 7000 gargle samples from more than 240 schools were analyzed by pooling and RT-qPCR in the period from March 1st to March 18 2021. The prevalence in Austrian schools was 0.21%. Compared to the previous rounds this prevalence was lower. Again pupils had higher prevalences than teachers (but the difference was not statistically significant). Interestingly, the results from the gargling study also enabled the team to estimate that about 20 to 25% of actually infected pupils are detected by the mandatory antigen self testing at Austrian schools.