Questions and answers about the Corona/Covid-19 - Self-test for children who are in day care facilities (as of 03.05.2021)

The self-test is carried out by the parents at home. The test material is provided to the parents in their day care facility or from their day care worker, together with the necessary instructions for carrying out the test. These instructions can also be found on the homepage of the city of Heidelberg www.heidelberg.de.

In principle, it is recommended that parents perform the test on their child themselves. The testing should be initiated and implemented in a playful way and therefore requires preparation. It should take place in a safe atmosphere. Testing against the will and/or resistance of the child should be excluded in principle.

The application of a self-test shows a video of the Augsburger Puppenkiste child-friendly and playful under the following link:

The manufacturer Hotgen explains the application of self-testing in a video

The age focus of the test is in the kindergarten area. The test kits are also available for nativity children and children in day care if the parents want the test. Day care children or Crèche Children are tested as part of the school's testing strategy.

No! Children are currently not required to test during normal operation under pandemic conditions. However, it is recommended that children be tested on a voluntary basis. This enables parents to know about possible infections of their children at an early stage.

The tests are given to the parents to take home. Testing should take place twice a week in the morning before the facility visit.
There should be a maximum of three days apart between the first and second test within a week, so Monday and Thursday are particularly suitable as test days. If the facility/daycare center is only visited on three consecutive days, one test before the first day of care of the week is sufficient.

For the providers of day care facilities or the management of day care facilities as well as for day care workers, information material on the course of the tests and on the procedure for a positive test result is available.

The management and pedagogical staff of the day care facilities as well as the day care workers support the parents with questions about self-testing. They clarify all parents through conversations, information material and, if necessary, information evenings are conducted about the reasons and necessity of the testing and its procedure.

Only parents who wish to participate in the voluntary testing of their children are required to sign a consent form for data processing prior to testing. Daycare centers and daycare providers will admit those who have provided a consent form. Within the framework of the test offer, the name and contact details of the parents, the name and age of the children to be tested and the period of time during which the test is to be carried out are processed by the management of the day care center or the day care worker.

With the declaration of consent, the parents confirm that they have taken note of the information on antigen self-tests for children and, in particular, the information on the procedure in the event of a positive test result. In addition, the facilities/provider or daycare provider require the parents' consent to process the data collected.

Yes! All families who wish to take part in this testing service offered by the City of Heidelberg must agree to the consent form for regular testing. Self-tests cannot be issued free of charge without a declaration of consent.

Signed consent forms are kept by the facility or daycare center for as long as the test offer is used. Parents have the option of revoking the declaration of consent with effect for the future. From the time of revocation, no further tests will be made available. The declaration of consent and the data collected will be deleted within a reasonable period of time after completion of the project to provide self-tests.

The child daycare facility/daycare provider does not record how many parents do not participate in the voluntary offer of the City of Heidelberg. If it is of interest to a facility/daycare center, they can calculate the number of non-participants (total number of children minus participating children). For data protection reasons, the names of non-participating children/families may not be recorded.

These are nasal corona self-tests from the company Hotgen "Corona virus (2019-nCoV-2) Antigen Test". This is a PoC antigen self-test using a swab in the anterior nasal section (not a deep nasopharyngeal swab). If a carrier wishes to use tests other than those provided by the City of Heidelberg, this is possible, but the cost will not be reimbursed. (Note "PoC": with a point-of-care (PoC) test, testing for SARS-CoV-2 is possible without having to hire a laboratory).

No, there are no risks or side effects if used properly. The swab is performed only in the front part of the nose.

The Hotgen lay test is user-friendly and, with its very high sensitivity, provides reliable and accurate results. Children and adults who are very contagious are detected in almost all cases. If the person has only a few viruses in the nasal cavity, the test is more likely to be negative. However, this person is then also less contagious. A self-test is always a snapshot and does not absolve the person from the need for caution.
Manufacturers also indicate the specificity and sensitivity of the tests. Specificity indicates how many healthy people tested are also detected as healthy. Sensitivity indicates how many sick infected persons are detected as infected sick persons.
Hotgen's tests (self-sampling) have a sensitivity of 95.37% (89.62%, 98.01%) and a specificity of 99.13% (95.24%, 99.85%). Thus, both false-positive and false-negative findings are possible.

If the swab comes into contact with the skin or other surfaces before or after taking the swab, the test is falsified and a new test must be performed.

If the self-test is negative, no further action is required. The AHA-L rules (distance and hygiene rules, wear mask and ventilate) should be observed unchanged.

If the self-test is invalid, another test is performed. After two invalid test results, a PCR test should be arranged.
If the self-test is positive, the following procedure should be followed:

In case of a positive self-test result, a subsequent PCR test is free of charge for the child. Whether other family members need to be tested is decided by the pediatrician, the Corona focal practice or the public health department.

Proof of a negative test result by showing or photographing the test is not required. Parents are asked to inform the facility management or daycare provider of a positive test result. This procedure could be changed in case of increasing incidence values.

In principle, a self-test that has been carried out does not have to be reported to the public health department. If the result of the self-test is positive, the person tested is obliged to have a PCR test carried out immediately (Section 4a (3) of the Corona Ordinance on Segregation). Contact should be avoided until the result of a PCR test is available. If the PCR test result is positive, the public health department will be informed by the testing physician or by the testing center. The City of Heidelberg asks parents whose child's self-test shows a positive result to inform the daycare center/daycare provider as a precaution.

No! Contact should be avoided until the results of a PCR test are available. However, the daycare group/daycare center does not have to be quarantined at this point. Only after a positive result of a PCR test are concrete steps specified by the responsible health office.

With the early information about a positive self-test result, the facility/daycare provider is given the opportunity to anonymously inform the other parents that a child from the group has a positive self-test result. Parents can then decide for themselves whether to bring or pick up their child.

In this case, we ask you to use the free citizen test, which may be used once a week by any citizen. It is not possible to issue an additional number of tests to all parents for this case. Where free citizen testing is done in Heidelberg can be found on www.heidelberg.de/testen

The test result should appear on the test cassette after a maximum of 15 minutes. 30 minutes after testing, the test result is no longer valid. If no clear test result can be seen after 30 minutes, the test must be repeated.

All test equipment including test strips are thrown into a tear-resistant garbage bag after use. This is tied and disposed of with the residual waste.

The tests are procured by the city of Heidelberg and co-financed by the state. The tests are ordered and distributed by Day care facilities and day care workers providers by the Children's and Youth Welfare Office of the City of Heidelberg. The tests are provided free of charge for the participating children.

Yes! The sponsors of the daycare centers and the daycare staff are provided with the necessary materials by the City of Heidelberg. The coordination of the distribution to the individual day care centers is the responsibility of the sponsors.
The City of Heidelberg's Child and Youth Welfare Office also distributes tests to daycare providers.

Day care facilities and day care workers document the issue of tests by a written acknowledgement of receipt.

These FAQs are currently being translated into various languages. As soon as the documents are available, they will be available on the homepage of the City of Heidelberg.

Test kits from a delivery that remain in the facilities/daycare centers will be distributed at a later date to families who participate in the voluntary testing. If families decide not to participate further in the testing, please return the test kits that have been handed out but not yet used to the facility/daycare provider so that they can be handed out to interested families.