To have attended this birthday

[ROZRAX]

Hi all

Long time lurker.

I recently, last weekend, attended a friends birthday in a garden, with three other couples. Low key affair. Ordered pizza and left by 5pm- driving. Two of us have children around 12 months old. My DS has recently started nursery, in the past 6 weeks, but was sent home from nursery the Tuesday before the weekend gathering due to a “rising temperature”. Due to current measures he wasn’t able to return until he’d had a COVID test, me and DH also had one. It turns out a few of the babies were ill and off too with the same requests for tests. We monitored his temperature since he came home from nursery and it was never high again, he was eating and drinking normally. He was congested/snotty. I also felt a tad rough but not unwell enough to not work etc. We all received negative COVID tests before the day of the gathering and as such attended. All the other parents at nursery reported negative tests too. He returned to nursery on the Tuesday after the weekend, they’re closed Friday and we couldn’t notify them of the negative test before they opened Monday.

A week after the gathering the other mum has text to say I’m selfish as her, her baby and husband have been ill (Symptoms described aren’t the snotty nose ones we had) and that we shouldn’t have come to the party and she wouldn’t have done if she was in the same situation. She insisted my son has vomited whilst at the gathering, he didn’t he coughed up the pizza he shoved in his mouth.

Was I wrong to attend when we had monitored his temp (and ours), had a COVID test which was negative and DS wasn’t presenting unwell in the 4 days since he came home from nursery.

Thanks

Well the nhs guidelines are pretty clear on this and you have broken them.

I don't know, if you tested negative then that's that....no?

If you tested negative then I thought this was ok?

Negative test is irrelevant due to false positive rate. Guidelines on the nhs website are 100% clear on this.

You may judge the risk to be low but it you decide to break the rules then you should have told those at the party so that they too could decide if they were willing to ignore the nhs guidance on this.

If you tested negative, I don't see why not.

I think it probably is unreasonable as passing on even a cold at the moment means disruptive self-isolation and coronavirus test.

Sorry for typo. Should have said "false negative rate"

NHS guidelines say you should have isolated in case you developed symptoms, it rather depends on your timelines tbh.

I probably wouldn't have gone in case.

Yes, we (and everyone else at nursery) all came back negative. The NHS guidelines state “ Stay at home and do not have visitors until you get your test result – only leave your home to have a test“- which we followed.

To be honest it doesn’t appears she’s worried it’s COVID or a risk of, more than we spread a cold and because DS had been ill earlier in week we shouldn’t have come.

In the current circumstances, Covid or not, I don’t think you should have taken an unwell child whilst you were also unwell to a non essential event where you knew there was a chance you could pass on whatever you had. It’s really selfish. If you are ill, just don’t go!

Especially now, if you pass things on then you are inconveniencing people as they will have to self isolate as a family until they get Covid tests.

You shouldn’t have gone.

Everyone knew about the COVID test as they’d been texting asking if we’d had the all clear and whether we could come

The guidelines are 100% clear that both you and your child should not have gone. The negative test does not remove the need to self isolate.

I'd be furious with you in their situation.

I agree had we felt unwell we wouldn’t have gone. We didn’t feel unwell the day prior or of the party. I guess I don’t have an understanding or grasp of how many “well” days you should have after having a cold

Could someone send the guidance about a negative test not removing the need to isolate?

Why would nurseries, schools and workplaces be using this as a measure if that’s not the case?

www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/self-isolation-and-treatment/when-to-self-isolate-and-what-to-do/

Thanks

I’m not being argumentative at all but it says

Negative test result

A negative result means the test did not find coronavirus.

You do not need to self-isolate if your test is negative, as long as:

everyone you live with who has symptoms tests negative, everyone in your support bubble who has symptoms tests negative,
you were not told to self-isolate for 14 days by NHS Test and Trace – if you were, see what to do if you've been told you've been in contact with someone who has coronavirus

So you went to a party, which was against the guidelines in terms of people/households with an unwell child? Risking passing whatever virus that had child on (ok, unlikely Covid given the test). Given that the child’s symptoms included a temperature, which if other people got they’d then have to isolate/test I would say that’s pretty unreasonable. Although I guess they chose to ignore the guidelines too..

I think yabu. There's often only a very small window (3-5 days) where the tests work and it could be too early, too late or the test was done incorrectly.

It worries me that some people assume they haven't got Covid after one test when they have symptoms.

But in the current climate, I think it's quite irresponsible. They probably all need to isolate and take tests now. This is what worries me about schools returning... Will people actually keep their DC off?

@TooDamnSarky

Negative test is irrelevant due to false positive rate. Guidelines on the nhs website are 100% clear on this.

You may judge the risk to be low but it you decide to break the rules then you should have told those at the party so that they too could decide if they were willing to ignore the nhs guidance on this.

You couldn’t be more wrong.
The whole point of the testing is so everyone can go back to work once it s a negative result, so don’t have to self isolate for 2 weeks.

You were fine to go to the party. My son got a negative result Friday eve and we went to a party sat afternoon.

My sister works on the ICU ward with those with covid, she had a slight temp, went home, had a test, was negative, went back to work that afternoon. That’s why they are testing!

Is snotty nose a symptom of Covid?

Agree with the above in terms of you broke the guidance going with 3 other couples - add you and the host(?).
NHS website says if you have had symptoms you should self isolate for 10 days. 14 with a positive test. You child had a high temperature. That is a key symptom. You then subsequently felt unwell. On this basis you should have isolated for 10 days.

I wouldn’t have gone in your position.
I would have been annoyed if you had gone if I had been attending.
I’d be angry I or my family got unwell (thus also requiring our family to be tested) after attending the event.

I’ve read those guidelines a couple of times over now @TooDamnSarky and I can’t see that they are 100% clear on what you are saying at all. Can you post where it says that you need to self isolate even after a negative test, as I feel like I’m missing something and it seems to me that the OP has done nothing wrong?

Of course you dont need to self isolate if you have a negative test .... otherwise what on earth is the point in testing?!!

If the whole household with symptoms have a negative test I should add .... as per the NHS guidelines posted above