Something to consider when comparing the school test positivity rate (which has been low) with the broader NYC test rate:

The school rate only includes tests done in school. If you’re in school to get a test, presumably you show no symptoms — or else you’d have stayed home.

So the school tests should mainly be catching only those cases that are asymptomatic.

Unlike the citywide rate, which would include people going to get a test because they think they might have covid.

The school positivity rate doesn’t include cases where the student or staffer tested positive outside of the DOE testing program — which is how I’d imagine many people with symptoms would discover they were positive, after staying home and visiting a non-school site.

If people are following the rules in schools — stay home if you’re sick, if you have a fever etc — they’re not getting tested by DOE. Could be one part of why the rates are so different.

I will say I think the point of this DOE testing was always to catch asymptomatic spread — again, if you have symptoms, you shouldn’t be in school. And we weren’t sure how common asymptomatic cases in kids were, so there’s good reason to test for it.

Of course anyone with experience in schools will also tell you it’s possible symptomatic people are attending — some parents are sometimes desperate for a place for their child to be and willing to write off illness as a cold. But it’s not a huge population.