Reeves: Rapid COVID-19 tests ‘a game changer’ for schools

In a brief statement during President Donald Trump’s news conference Monday at the White House, Gov. Tate Reeves thanked the president for making rapid COVID-19 tests available.

“This is a game changer,” Reeves said, particularly for the state’s K-12 schools and historically Black college and universities.

“While we have testing available now at least once a week in every county of our state, what this allocation is going to allow for us is that we will have testing available for our K-12 teachers every single day going forward,” he said.

“Kids learn so much better when they’re in the classroom,” Reeves added, saying that while 75% to 80% of the state’s children were now back in school, his goal was to have 100% of Mississippi’s students back in their seats instead of using distance learning at home.

Reeves also indicated that the allocations to the state’s three public HBCUs “means the world to Mississippi.”

“It’s going to make a difference,” he added.

The president said Monday that he was making 150 million rapid tests available to the nation’s governors, a follow-up to an announcement first made in August.