Pcr test

[Buttons4me]

My 15 year old son has been off school he has been full of cold, sore throat, and what I'd describe as a tickly cough. He attends a special needs school and has a Development Delay. He has only very recently started to do the lateral flow up the nose test and will not do the throat one. His school said he needs to get a pcr test this weekend and can not return to school without it. We have had a very busy stressful day today getting moved in to our new house so I have not booked a test today. Do I book him in for a test still even though he is ok now and does it involve the throat test as he refuses to have that done. Please can anyone advise does he need to be tested even with a negative lf test and he seems ok but school say he has to have a pcr test and let them know the result or he can't return. Thankyou.

LFT are only for when you have no symptoms. A PCR is for when you do have symptoms, and he should have had this done when he was showing symptoms.

If he is completely free of symptoms now I’m not sure where you stand with the school - in theory I would imagine he would have to continue to isolate for a total of ten days ok the assumption that it could be Covid, but I’m sure someone will advise otherwise, or contact the school.

PCR is for symptoms. He should have had it done when he first started with a new cough or he can choose to isolate for 10 days from the start of symptoms. A PCR can be done with both nostrils rather than throat and one nostril.

You can do the PCR with nose swabs only if he can’t tolerate the throat swab, my DS can’t tolerate the first swab and any time he’s needed a PCR this is what we’ve done!

PCR tests are supposed to be more accurate which is why school insists.

You can do them nose only on kids; so I’m sure that’ll be fine given the circumstances. Perhaps check with 119.

Lateral flows can be used if you have symptoms but schools won’t accept them due to the higher rate of false negatives.