Seven school districts are prepared to complete the COVID-19 testing within 2 weeks, however, Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon says new state guidelines were released over the weekend could lighten the burden.

“After 2 weeks of testing, if each school shows that they are testing below the rate of which the yellow zone percentage is, we no longer need to test in that school,” said McMahon.

McMahon says schools must test below the yellow zone rate of about 6.5% to no longer participate.

“That’s proving what we all thought: we’re not seeing widespread in the schools,” said McMahon. “We’ll now go and use those resources in the community.”

McMahon says Liverpool and North Syracuse students were tested Monday.

“We got over 500 tests completed,” said Liverpool School Superintendent Mark Potter. “We needed about 450 to reach the 20%, which we should have reached it in all seven buildings.”

Potter says two people tested positive – a student at Donlin Drive Elementary and a bus driver who reports to Nate Perry Elementary.

“They isolated the student and had very little impact on the building because it was very early,” said Potter. “That bus driver is a person who has not driven today.”

McMahon says the schools will finish their first round of testing by next Tuesday.