Universities offer free fast-track Covid tests to young adults under 30 - including non-students
Thursday, January 21, 2021 @ 12:28 PM
UNIVERSITIES are starting to carry out fast-track antigen tests on adults from age 18 and under 30 in a bid to slow the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus after reports revealed that older teens and young adults were most likely to pass the condition to others because of not realising they were infected.
The Epidemiological Vigilance Network, part of the General Directorate of Public Health in Spain recently produced data showing that the most rapidly-rising sector of the population testing positive despite having no symptoms was the 15-29 age group.
This is partly because they are more likely to have to be in contact with larger numbers of people than older adults, through school, college, university, or work in jobs that typically, in the early stages of their life in the labour market, would not normally permit home-working and are more likely to be in manual or lower-skilled positions – not necessarily through choice, but because they have less experience as an employee and, whatever their qualifications, have a more difficult time gaining access to higher-skilled rôles.
Younger children appear at present, for reasons not yet clarified, to have a lower rate of contagion than adults and older teenagers, despite also having much larger contact groups due to being in school.
Unfortunately for the 15-29 age group cited, society's knee-jerk reaction is to blame them for heavy socialising in crowds – partying without practising social distancing or wearing masks – but this is not necessarily the case; many 'illegal' parties featuring risky practices broken up by police in the past few weeks have been among older adults, in their 30s or 40s, not just among youths.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com