To wonder why people are self isolating with a cough and not a continuous cough

[2020hello]

I thought the xough symptom had to be continuous like coughing for an hour, not just the average cough and cold?

Are people really self isolating and getting tested with just colds without fevers?

I get the fever thing but coughing a few times a day seems a tad extreme?

3 times in 24 hours can't be 3 coughs and people test that would be crazy

I agree for 3x individual coughs it would be. But what counts as coughing for long enough x3? Coughing for 15 seconds x3, 30 seconds x 3, a minute? Who knows. Not me, not you, not Matt Hancock.

Way before lockdown when the Abels were stuck on that cruise ship I watched some f their YouTube live sessions. She used to cough every now and then, one little single cough about every 30 mins. She blamed the dry air in the cabin and they got a dehumidifier from somewhere. She had no other symptoms and then tested positive.

I currently have had a fever of 39.1 for 48 hours a dry cough started the day before that is a really painful hacking cough also can't stay awake more then an hour at a time and really short of breath, my child came home from school on Friday with a fever we have only just managed to book tests which we will receive in the next 30 hours, however it is from school were parents have sent there kids in after similar symptoms as there kids seemed better and never tested them so no i am really ill and the schools extra measures are a heap of shit so I would prefer people air on the side of caution then not

It's called mass hysteria

@Hamm87 - that sucks. I hope you and your DC are better soon

Our school called to tell me to collect my daughter as she has a slight fever, when I got there they said it's still under 38 just keep an eye on it ? I was confused 37.5 in normal so if it's under 38 why ? She has has a cold and a slight cough though but she's been absolutely fine no never at all I've been checking all day 🤷🏻‍♀️

Temp above 37.8 is normally classed as a temp however if she was coughing to it was right to send her home. Hopefully we just have a really bad flu but it is crap as it means the school have not shut his year group down until its positive and other parents have been sending kids back with no tests done with fevers

Was ment to say with it taking so long to tests and the results my child would have been off school over a week for it to spread more

My son has asthma and currently has a cold. He uses his inhalers but was sent home from school as he had coughed in class and told he couldn't return without a negative test result.

It took 4 days of trying the website every half an hour, to get a test and even then we had to make a 4 hour round trip.

The advice on the helpline was that it wasn't classed as a continuous cough but school still insisted on a negative test.

I think schools are sending home kids with coughs, I agree with them, it's sensible at the moment. If it spreads through the whole school it will put even more pressure on the testing system. If the tests were more readily available it wouldn't be such an issue.

Because it's not one symptom fits all. Some people have cough & fever, others just a cough.

I know someone whose work insisted she had her som tested and she couldn't come in as she mentioned he had a cold ( snotty nose ) no cough , temp or lpss of smell etc
My son also had cold and was sneezing i kept him off school for one day due to excessive sneezing kept eye on temp , etc for few days as was weekend which stayed totally normal, he was all fine and went back to school ,
I assume i did right not testing as didn't meet criteria and my friends work are wrong insisting a test fpr just a runny nose ???
If we all get tested for runny nose with no other symptoms them they will have to hugely increase the testing capacity but i am reading several places are insisting on a testi
She hasn't had the test back yet though so be interesting what it reveals
But its cold and flu season and that can often also cause cough and fevers and without a test no guarantee of knowing if just a cold or covid and i agree the coughing doesn't make sense when it says 3 or more episodes ??

@Hamm87 yes you're right it's sensible I guess although they've said I can send her in as it's likely a cold as most the class have a cold. This is going to be ongoing throughout winter I guess.

All this nonsense about schools 'insisting' kids stay home and get tested with only a runny nose and none of the 3 named symptoms.

Say no.

Ask what thousands of parents of children with SN have had to ask schools when they have attempted to send our children home for non-reasons in the past - ask if they are formally excluding your child from school.

It's absolute bullshit. The criteria for testing via the NHS is very clear. If you, or someone else, wants tested for a different reason, pay for it privately.

Its idiotic. No wonder there are no tests available! My daughter gets a cough..and croup..this time every year. I prepared for it.. room vaporiser and eucalyptus and essential oils. Shes fine. Loads of fruit and veg and shes amazing. Tired, overwhelmed and a bit stressed out by the "grown ups"

DH almost died of Covid & had a very minor occasional cough, literally a small tickle a few times a day. That was the first symptom, then I took his temperature & it was ever so slightly raised. He didn't believe me that he had it until he started getting very breathless & eventually vomiting green stuff where his body was shutting down. I only had a few minor tickles too. My main Covid symptom was struggling to breathe, but luckily it only lasted a few days & was nowhere near as bad as DH. Better safe than sorry I say!

Because the school's don't take the children who are showing the slightest symptoms without a test. I understand why, they must protect their staff and students.

My dc had a very high temperature before the cold appeared and is now coughing.

We've already had covid in March, we think. It was a completely different illness. I didn't get much of a temperature or cough but my lungs were so incredibly sore and I felt dreadful for weeks. Fatigued for months.

Getting tested is not insane it's sensible if you have any of the symptoms. I know of young people who have cold, been tested and found to be positive. I assume they are asymptotic covid carriers.

@YouJustDoYou

Because we're being forced to by the school. Any tiny, tiny symptom, and the entire family has to isolate. It's fucking insane.

Only the affected child/person needs to isolate not the whole family. It's only if that child/person then develops symptoms do the whole family have to isolate.

@2020hello

There definitely does need clarification on the cough .

3 times in 24 hours can't be 3 coughs and people test that would be crazy.

Mine are very snotty obviously return to school has given them a cold but the snot will cause a slight cough here and there by no means continuous.
School are good here and even 118 say snottyness first its unlikely yo be covid but all I see online is people self isolating and getting good tested for cold symptoms, no wonder the system can't cope and tests are unavailable.

I thought a fever was above 38, not 37.8? Is it different for different ages.?

No it isn't but for Covid a high temp is deemed to be 37.8 🙄

@HotPenguin

People are making it up as they go along, the official guidance says you should feel their skin with your hand to judge whether they have a temperature. And there's no definition of what a "coughing episode" is. Nowhere does it say that cold symptoms exempt you from self isolating, some people get cold symptoms as part of it.

You're wrong a continuos cough as defined by the nhs is

coughing a lot for more than an hour, or 3 or more coughing episodes in 24 hours (if you usually have a cough, it may be worse than usual)

For others asking about temperatures

A normal temperature in babies and children is about 36.4C, but this can vary slightly from child to child.

A high temperature is 38C or more.

The nhs advise a digital tympanic (ear) thermometer .

Jesus an hour of non stop coughing?

Imagine the blood that would be comming up by the end of that

So DD had a cold over the weekend. Occasional cough (productive not dry) but majorly snotty nose. Most of class have it, plus family so put it down to normal cold as no other symptoms.

I have developed a sore throat which now has a tickly sensation, but have coughed 3 individual times in the last 12 hours. No other symptoms thus far. I'm concerned however as I look after my elderly grandparents so really need to be sure, but also conscious of not wasting time/resources by not having "classic" symptoms 😩

We are still in lockdown and doing remote learning. But isn't it better to be safe than not?

I think mainly this is the government's fault, but I don't think parents should be sending kids to schools with snotty noses at the moment.

It isn't the time to be passing any viruses around school. I know this is a problem for working parents, but if your snotty life passes on a cold to 3 or 4 other kids, that's 3 or 4 other families inconvenienced and so on.

Central government has made attendance such a massive thing for schools, they need to take the lead on this. But they are so cowardly they will not make an unpopular statement such as keep your kids with sniffles home, save our testing system.

Some people like self isolating; they don't have to go out or see people. You'd be surprised at the number of 'natural hermits' this crisis has cultivated. I admit to being one and I love it.