ABSTRACT
During the COVID‐19 lockdown, parents and caregivers were asked to take greater responsibility for their children's education while they were unable to attend school. In this commentary, we report on data sourced from 243 participants in the Tasmania Project in Australia about their experiences of learning from home during COVID‐19 lockdown. We engage with ideas about boundaries and bounding processes to understand how participants perceived challenges to their children's learning from home. They identified a lack of physical space for children's work to be performed and a lack of time, skill, and confidence to support them. We explore the bounding processes inherent to understanding and constituting education through identity, space, and place making and consider the ways in which these processes were revealed in the challenges identified by respondents. We argue that home learning disrupted known practices associated with education and schooling and challenged accepted categories and socio‐spatial divisions created by institutionalisation. We anticipate that exploring the challenges of home learning during COVID‐19 from the perspectives of parents and caregivers will inform future home–school partnerships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Geographical Research is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
ABSTRACT
Background Access to rapid diagnosis is key to the control and management of SARS-CoV-2. Reverse Transcriptase- Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) testing usually requires a centralised laboratory and significant infrastructure. We describe the development and diagnostic accuracy assessment of a novel, rapid point-of-care RT-PCR test, the DnaNudge platform CovidNudge test, which requires no laboratory handling or sample pre-processing. Methods Nasopharyngeal swabs are inserted directly into a cartridge which contains all reagents and components required for RT-PCR reactions, including multiple technical replicates of seven SARS-CoV-2 gene targets (rdrp1, rdrp2, e-gene, n-gene, n1, n2 and n3) and human ribonuclease P (RNaseP) as a positive control. Between April and May 2020, swab samples were tested in parallel using the CovidNudge direct-to-cartridge platform and standard laboratory RT-PCR using swabs in viral transport medium. Samples were collected from three groups: self-referred healthcare workers with suspected COVID-19 (Group 1, n=280/386; 73%); patients attending the emergency department with suspected COVID-19 (Group 2, n=15/386; 4%) and hospital inpatient admissions with or without suspected COVID-19 (Group 3, n=91/386; 23%). Results Of 386 paired samples tested across all groups, 67 tested positive on the CovidNudge platform and 71 with standard laboratory RT-PCR. The sensitivity of the test varied by group (Group 1 93% [84-98%], Group 2 100% [48-100%] and Group 3 100% [29-100%], giving an average sensitivity of 94.4% (95% confidence interval 86-98%) and an overall specificity of 100% (95%CI 99-100%; Group 1 100% [98-100%]; Group 2 100% [69-100%] and Group 3 100% [96-100%]). Point of care testing performance was comparable during a period of high (25%) and low (3%) background prevalence. Amplification of the viral nucleocapsid (n1, n2, n3) targets were most sensitive for detection of SARS-CoV2, with the assay able to detect 1x104 viral particles in a single swab. Conclusions The CovidNudge platform offers a sensitive, specific and rapid point of care test for the presence of SARS-CoV-2 without laboratory handling or sample pre-processing. The implementation of such a device could be used to enable rapid decisions for clinical care and testing programs.