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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

DD has a cold - CV test?

94 replies

BastardCorona · 14/09/2020 07:28

Sorry; posting for traffic. DD6 has a cold. It’s been threatening to come out for days, with sniffing and sneezing yesterday. Today she is full blown snot, sneezes and slight coughing due to being bunged up. Just to note, she doesn’t have a raised temperature. I’m keeping her off school today because she feels miserable.
My question is do I need to book a CV test? And do I need to declare anything to the school? I’m really confused and worried she won’t be allowed back into school without one but at the same time I don’t want to book her in for a, very hard to get test, which I’m sure is a waste of time.
I’m also really concerned about making a bigger thing about this because the school closed the bubble for my older child last week when another child had a cold and the kids couldn’t come back to class until the (negative) result.
Sorry, I’m rambling a bit but just after a bit of advice really.

OP posts:

Clymene · 14/09/2020 11:25

[quote Frazzled2207]@Clymene
that chart where helpful is not from PHE it's from the northern ireland public health agency.
I think it is probably broadly similar for all of UK but bear in mind different devolved nations definitely have slightly different rules[/quote]
Ha! Good spot. The school sent it to us and that's what they said in the email.

I think the advice is sound though - if you don't have any COVID symptoms, you don't need a test. The testing is at breaking point. If we test every child for every single sniffle, we will be traumatising our children for no reason

Herewefall · 14/09/2020 11:27

Can I just say - people who show up at testing with little symptoms are not the problem. Testing capacity has been reduced due to lab problems. Just visited a site that normally hadf capacity for 1000 tests per day - they are currently carrying out 150 tests per day - they were all sitting around doing nothing...literally nothing!

DominaShantotto · 14/09/2020 11:32

@Herewefall

But what if you cant get a test? What happens then? We spoke to the testing helpline and 119 who said there arent any tests at all.

Yep it's absolutely a bullshit scenario and it's only going to spiral worse if it carries on - and considering all I think the government are going to do is pull another figure out of the air and say they will be doing that many tests a day by a date 2 weeks in the future and wallop us with another 3-part slogan... we're fucked.

Mrslafayette · 14/09/2020 11:35

Yup we are. The dr we spoke too seemed fairly confident that it isnt covid but said we all have to isolate for 10 days from first symptom so looks like kids are off school for a week whereas if we could get a test and it was negative they could go back. If schools moan about their attendance I will go wild. Not that it's the school's fault but both my children want to be at school.

Jellybeansincognito · 14/09/2020 12:25

I think any poorly children should just remain home.
A little bit of a cold for one child could be full on fever and cough for another.

How can we be covid alert if we’re battling through this a week in?

icecreamconie · 14/09/2020 12:29

Can I just say - people who show up at testing with little symptoms are not the problem. Testing capacity has been reduced due to lab problems.

Both of these factors are the problem. Both.

Mrslafayette · 14/09/2020 12:43

@icecreamconie

Can I just say - people who show up at testing with little symptoms are not the problem. Testing capacity has been reduced due to lab problems.

Both of these factors are the problem. Both.

But if you are being told you can't go to work or can't go to school without having a test even if you think you dont need one what are you meant to do?

ConquestEmpireHungerPlague · 14/09/2020 13:19

I think I would want to see Statista's source before I would take that at face value @FaffingForEngland (but, surprise surprise, that's not available). The numbers of tests being done have not been included in the daily statistics from the DoH since the first week of July and were 'unavailable because of technical problems' for a month before that. In any case, the entire scandal with testing is that a large proportion of the swabs that were being taken have not been processed properly because the private providers contracted had insufficient lab capacity. This fiasco derives almost entirely from the government's determination to exploit the Covid crisis as a means to shift public money into private hands, irrespective of how safe a pair of hands those are.

Jellybeansincognito · 14/09/2020 13:19

I wish they’d just ban any illness from being in school full stop as much as possible.

Lots of children not being able to go to school again because some parents thought it was appropriate to send their kid in unwell, just because their child’s symptoms weren’t ‘that bad’.

Which has created this issue regarding covid testing and many families having to isolate for 14 days.

It’s not fair at all.

Roomba · 14/09/2020 13:28

DS2 is the same today. When I phoned my ex he told me that his 4yo (DS's half sister) has it too.

I contacted school for advice, as Y2 now have a child who tested positive for covid. They advised that as DS doesn't have a temperature, cough, loss of taste or anything else he was fine to be at school - they said if everyone took a couple of days off to be tested with a sniffle nobody would be there at the moment!

It does seem ludicrous that DS can be in when snotty no problem, all the while spreading it, but when it turns into a cough (as it may well do knowing DS) he then has to stop spreading it and get tested before he can be in!

Roomba · 14/09/2020 13:33

I'm very concerned havi g sent DS in, he's missed out on so much school this year and has been an emotional wreck getting used to being back in again. He just has a snotty nose, he doesn't have any of the 'top signs' of Covid in children at all. And his school actively encouraged me to send him in. But then there's people in here saying they tested positive with just a snotty nose... I'd not forgive myself if he made anyone else ill. There's no tests available here today though I just checked (would have to be postal as no car).

TheDuchessofMalfy · 14/09/2020 13:41

Yeah, no test unless she’s got a new continuous cough (3 episodes in 24 hours).

But keep her off school for a couple of days to stop her spreading the cold around!

supersonicginandtonic · 14/09/2020 13:52

@Jellybeansincognito talk about hysterical. If people in the NHS trust where I work all kept their kids off achool due to any illness, slight cold, for example. I can tell you now there would be no doctors and nurses at work. It's the time of year for colds. Especially given that kids have been off for 6 months.

Jellybeansincognito · 14/09/2020 13:59

I don’t think it’s hysterical at all, lots of kids and families are having to isolate because of this.

After being at school for a week, already off!

It’s simply not fair, on anyone atm to be spreading their lurgy around.

Bubbinsmakesthree · 14/09/2020 14:19

It’s tricky isn’t it - if we treated every sniffle as if it could be covid we’d either have to get a test (overwhelming testing capacity) or the household isolate for 14 days have a precaution.

But if we don’t, we could be missing cases.

But then lots of cases, particularly in children are asymptomatic or present in atypical ways.

I don’t really know what the answer is.

TheDuchessofMalfy · 14/09/2020 14:23

Bubbinsmakesthree i think this is a reason to keep kids off for a couple of days for a cold, but not treat it as corona (because it’s not) and not keep their siblings off.

Obviously if it’s corona symptoms then you have to keep them off for 14 days or until there’s a test.

Hopefully something will be done soon about capacity as I’m sure the govt doesn’t want to look quite this incompetent!

Bubbinsmakesthree · 14/09/2020 19:59

But a cold is contagious for longer than a couple of days and coughs often emerge later on in the progression of a cold.

Keeping a child with cold symptoms who is well enough to be in school off for a day or two doesn’t seem to achieve that much.

But one way or another there needs to be some clear guidance. Almost every family I know at the moment seems to have a cold and be agonising over to-test-or-no-to-test decisions.

Cam2020 · 14/09/2020 20:05

No! You could be depriving someone who does not get sick pay of a test who has one of the three, very well publicised symptoms.

Does, she have a temperature? A new continuous cough? Loss of smell or taste? Unless the answer is yes to one of the above, then NO!

KanyeisGOD · 15/09/2020 11:41

I would speak to the school. We only got sent the school guidelines on 'what to do if your child has symptoms' this morning.

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