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THE Government is being urged to have children under 12 years old tested for the novel coronavirus before schools reopen next month in order to avoid any possibility of infections when face-to-face learning resumes.The call has come from two parents and two health professionals against the background of concerns that children under 12 can contract the virus.Single mother Shanique Erskine told the Jamaica Observer that she believes young children should be tested, especially because there is a surge in coronavirus cases across Jamaica and confirmation last week that the highly contagious Delta variant is here."I don't want to put anybody's kids in danger and I don't want anybody to put mine in danger," Erskine said. "Kids are to be tested because now we have the Delta variant here and kids can get infected. I think the Government should take up that responsibility because they say they are for the children and they are for education and the children are the future."Sheyona Watson, mother of a seven-year-old, agreed. She told the Sunday Observer that she fears some parents may knowingly send sick children to school."I want the tests to be done before the children re-enter the classroom. At the end of the day, you can't trust everyone. Some people will know that their children are sick and still send them to school and we can't have that risk. If that happens and my son comes home to his younger sister or even his grandparents, what will happen?" she asked."And this problem would still be there a month later, two months later, so this is really not a real solution. But, at least we as parents will have some comfort going into the school year and our children will have some level of protection," Watson said.Last Thursday, Education Minister Fayval Williams told the country that children 12 and over must be vaccinated in order to return to face-to-face classes when schools reopen on September 1. This means that, while vaccinated students will be eligible immediately for face-to-face classes, those who are unvaccinated will have to join classes online until they receive the jab.Williams made the announcement at a news conference hours after Jamaica received a donation from the United States Government of 204,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine, the majority of which will be administered to school students.A vaccination blitz for students started this weekend.Meanwhile, immunologist Dr Yohann White told the Sunday Observer that he has not seen a comprehensive plan from the education and public health sectors that includes testing."The risk of not identifying persons with the infection early enough is so crazy, because the spread is going to happen so quickly. We will need to be able to identify promptly, as they occur, if we are going to reopen school," he said."Testing needs to be talked about, and from the start of this pandemic there has always been a gap in testing. The same way we are seeing the vaccination blitz with mass vaccinations, that was the vision I had at the start of the pandemic for access to testing. So now with the discussion of school reopening, we need to ensure that there is testing capacity, and not just asking parents to go and pay for an antigen test or a PCR (polymerase chain reaction) test," Dr White said.But, even as he advocated testing, Dr White stressed that the onus shouldn't be placed on parents to pay for tests."I'm not sure it would be practicable to say it's the parents' responsibility to produce a negative test. It will be a cost to the parents. What really, ideally, should happen is that the State should be prepared to have testing available for students and staff in the school setting," he argued.Dr Adella Campbell, associate professor and head of the Caribbean School of Nursing at the University of Technology, Jamaica, told the Sunday Observer that testing the children prior to the reopening of schools is a feasible plan, despite resource constraints in the public health system."In-person education is important to a child's academic success and well-being generally and, as such, I believe mandatory testing will be a useful mechanism to prevent the spread of COVID-19 among the school population. This is particularly important and should be instituted for unvaccinated children," Dr Campbell said."Further, this forms part of the overall COVID-19 mitigation strategies. A point to note, however, is that for this to be successful, there needs to be testing and vaccination sensitisation sessions for parents, families, children, and community," she argued.The fact that most students have been out of school for over a year and some families are challenged can result in some parents making irrational decisions and send unwell children to school, the doctor reasoned."This action may be in the guise that the child is having a cold or the flu. We hope good sense will prevail and parents make their contribution in stemming the spread, especially with the highly virulent Delta variant. It is clear that testing, vaccination, and other prevention mechanisms are essential tools that will ensure the safety of students, teachers, and facilitators," Dr Campbell told the Sunday Observer.Dr White agreed, saying that there needs to be more discussions around vaccines to boost uptake."What is going to be important is to vaccinate as many persons as possible, and since children of a certain age group are not yet covered by the COVID vaccine, we will have to ensure that we vaccinate everybody else around them. So adults around them - teachers, caregivers, family members - those persons will need to be protected," Dr White said."Although children [under 12 years old] are not eligible for vaccines at the moment, they can still get the virus and they can still transmit, even though, to a large extent, they do better and cope better with the infection. But you still want to avoid it as much as possible," he reasoned.Dr Campbell also expressed hope that schools will be adequately resourced to accommodate COVID-19 prevention mitigation strategies such as adequate through-ventilation, sanitisation stations, and space for physical distancing."Decisions regarding school resumption should incorporate the safety of students, teachers, facilitators, and the school community generally," she said."By and large, parents should be encouraged and supported to have their children tested and vaccinated as soon as the vaccine for those age groups becomes available. Parents should also be encouraged to have their children wear masks and/or face shields, practise physical distancing and practise how to properly sanitise their hands," Dr Campbell said.