The Virginia Department of Health (VDH) and Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) are launching a new K-12 SARS-CoV-2 testing/screening program called ViSSTA:

Virginia School Screening Testing for Assurance (ViSSTA) will provide testing vendors, supplies, and staffing to support an end-to-end COVID-19 testing experience with the goal of maximizing resources available to schools to navigate full in-person instruction in the fall and minimizing added responsibilities to existing school staff. CDC and VDH strongly recommend COVID-19 testing in schools and COVID-19 testing remains an important mitigation strategy, intended to be combined or layered with other prevention strategies such as masking, vaccination, and physical distancing. At the core of ViSSTA will be vendor-conducted pooled PCR testing. Contractors will conduct pooled testing at participating schools at least weekly and provide end-to-end support (e.g., supplies, staff to conduct testing, PPE, biohazard waste removal, reporting tools). VDH also plans to provide support for conducting confirmatory testing in the event a pool returns a positive test result.

For more information on ViSSTA, please consult this document. For more information on the CDC guidance on COVID-19 prevention in K-12 schools, see this page.

What percentage of Virginia public schools will participate in Virginia's ViSSTA school testing program for the 2021-22 school year?

At the moment, VDH/VDOE do not have a public resolution source. If and when one is made available, it will be shared with the Metaculus community.

However, please note that there may not be a public resolution source. This question is nevertheless being asked given its importance to VDH. It will resolve based on school participation information up to and including 10 September 2021.