Do people still test for covid?

[filthypride]

I’m currently sick with what I am guessing is a pretty rotten cold.

I had covid once and it completely floored me for 2 weeks, this isn’t like that… this started with a horrendous earache for 3 days and now I’m sneezing, coughing, tap like nose and head and sinus pain enough to take meds and I hate taking pills.

My germ infested child had a cough a few weeks ago and I was around (not close proximity) to someone who had Covid and didn’t know.

So I’m wondering do people still test?

My eldest sibling works for the NHS and they now have to go in with covid unless of course they’re bedridden….It confuses me how we went from “don’t go out, don’t mix, don’t see your loved ones, don’t breathe near anyone” to… “do what you want, even if you work with the sick and elderly”…..

Anyway, that’s all.

Make sure to swab throat and nose

I have never been able to swab my throat, I gag to the point of being sick. It was a nightmare when I had to have a PCR, it took several attempts before they could actually do the test.

I've got a stinking cold right now and I won't be testing (we have no tests left and I'm not buying any!). I will just do what I usually do with a cold which is stay in when I feel ill. There's no need to test. It's just a cold like all the other colds I've had over the years. I don't have to see anyone vulnerable though (or go out).

DS did use up the last of our free tests a few months ago when he suspected he had Covid (he did) but he needed to know whether to work from home.

I can't swab my throat. I can't get the swab anywhere near the back of my throat at all without gagging. The only time I managed it was when we went to a clinic for pre-travel tests and I just shut my eyes so I didn't know what was happening - the guy's aim was really good! I still gagged slightly when he did the second side though.

Yes so I can get antivirals

No I would never test. If I’m that ill I’d stay home

Agree with this.
We test as a family if anyone is unwell. It took me months to get over Covid when I had it, I don’t want to pass it on to anyone else. Youngish (40) previously healthy and very fit friend is still struggling six months post Covid.

Or alternatively, it was just a cold or other virus? They do still exist.

I’ve had Covid twice and both times it was just like a cold.

I wouldn’t buy tests so won’t test again. I’m back to pre 2020 assessment methods of if I feel shite I’ll stay at home and not spread it around.

Ive some very elderly relatives including one in a care home. I test because I want to minimise any risk of giving them or other people or staff in the care home Covid.

Our Trust policy is to go in and wear a mask if you've got any form of cold-esque lurgy now. Most of us just tend to reschedule appointments and WFH because doing our jobs in a mask sucks and it's a lot of going into care homes - so if we ring them up and ask them - they usually choose for us to reschedule. We've got that bit of flexibility with working in community though - the in-patient setting staff aren't as lucky.

No access to free tests anymore - I'm relatively happy to swab if I've got any suspicious symptoms but I'm not going to pay out of pocket to do my job so I've got a small reserve and then I'm done.

There is an absolute shitter of a cold doing the rounds (multiple tests across multiple days - tests were in date) and it wasn't coming up as Covid though. My sinuses and ears have been suffering from the after effects of it for a good month now (this is normal for me - my sinuses hate me in general and I've got really narrow ear canals so things tend to get bunged up like buggery).

DH still tests because he works in a hospice and they don't want him in if he has Covid. I don't know anyone else still testing - the rest of us don't.

I did when I had it in August as I was about to go on a long car journey with my elderly mom (which I had to cancel!)

the kits I had were old and I had to combine about 4 to have enough of the liquid which had evaporated.

I do. Last time I'd had a headache for a couple of days and then a sore throat, wasn't expecting to test positive but did - we were meeting family in a public area, and knowing they still test, did the courtesy of doing the same. Work ask us to test if we've got symptoms. If we go in without testing and they realise we're ill, they'll give us a test - this is partly to prevent too many staff being off at the same time but also because we get a lost of vulnerable and elderly customers.

I don't, we just stay at home if we're too unwell to do otherwise. Possibly I might do out of curiosity if we still had any free ones.

@flowerchild2000 it's not so much that you can't build any immunity, it's that the virus is evolving so fast that there's a new strain arriving as soon as you've cleared your last infection, and there are multiple strains in circulation. So you're never going to be immune to it.

The best way to protect yourself is by masking in crowded spaces with an N95, and practice good indoor air at home through ventilation and if you can afford it, HEPA purifiers, to reduce in-home transmission because it's airborne. Isolate those who are ill. Close theIf you've got kids you need to be pushing their schools to improve indoor air quality, there are plenty of real world studies out there showing that ventilation combined with HEPAs, or even just one or the other, can significantly reduce infection levels in schools, and families benefit from the kids not getting sick, schools save money from teachers not being off sick.

I test if it feels Covidy, yes. Don't bother if it's just a cold anymore. I know loads of people who've had it this autumn, so obviously people are still testing. But I always feel the same with Covid, I get a weird tingly pain across my shoulders when it starts (had it three times) and a high fever. I used to test for every sniffle because my dad was very vulnerable, but he's better now and taking his chances in public.

An absolute stinker of a cold has just gone through my son's school, lots of kids in his class on antibiotics for chest infections and I know of two younger ones who were in hospital. All the parents and teachers got it too, we've all been suffering. No-one has mentioned testing positive for Covid, and I didn't bother because it didn't feel Covidy at all.

No. I only would if provided with a test.

I was ill a couple a weeks ago and it felt just like COVID did a year previously. I stayed in and out of others' way. I'd have done the same with any illness that was likely to be contagious.

🙄🙄🙄

Thanks for mansplaining my body to me!

No. Haven't tested for a very long time.

I did a few weeks ago as I was coming to the end a dreadful cold and was going into hospital. So I tested before my pre op. When I told the nurses they looked at me like I had two heads. They don’t test there anymore. I felt a plum but pleased for me that I’d done it.

I currently have Covid and I tested so I could avoid going out. If it had been negative I would have gone for a walk when I feel well enough but as its positive I won't until I test negative (and feel well!)

Might be being over cautious but me doing that won't hurt anyone and me going out could

I did a test this morning as I've been feeling very unwell for a few days. My friend has very recently had covid so I wanted to rule it out. Test was negative.

Here in Melbourne, the new brand of COVID is racing around. Yes I would test, but then the local councils make this easy by providing packs of tests free. It's in an effort to keep testing on the agenda.

There's no requirement, or any way at all of notifying the state authorities as there was earlier this year. Yet the website says cases are on the increase, so I'm guessing this means people in hospital.

I tested -
Negative ...

Yes, I test if feeling unwell or know I will be in contact with someone who has underlying health issues.
It costs less than a cup of coffee.