Child's class bubble close but should it have been?

[TellerTuesday4EVA]

This also happened to a friend with DC at a different school.

Message to parents last night, DD's class bubble will now be closed and children to isolate for 14 days as a child in the bubble has tested positive over the weekend.

Class group chat starts, one mum comes on & says it's X but we're ok. Then says X doesn't have any symptoms, was me on Friday afternoon and husband Saturday but we got her tested anyway and it's positive.

Now every single thing I have read says only to have a test if you develop symptoms. X would have to self isolate anyway due to the parents having positive tests but by getting her tested they now closed the bubble and all 30 kids are at home for 14 days. This what would happen if following the rules but then it shows the system if flawed as this child obviously did have it and was asymptotic.

So I don't know if I'm right to be annoyed by this or not. I'm certainly not looking forward to 2 weeks home schooling again.

I understand your frustration.

If child x was asymptomatic then their case clearly isn't that bad. And yes they could of course pass it on to someone who got it badly, due to ore existing conditions, but surely that risk is low, because those people are largely choosing to 'shield', so the chances of passing it on are slim. And if everyone who gets covid is asymptomatic, then at least they aren't unwell!

Plus if child x was contagious, then they were most contagious a long time ago, 3-5 days before they developed symptoms (which child x didn't!) or at least way before mum hit child x tested.

Do all those who she gave it to, 'contaminated' are also asymptomatic. Or else they'd be mid to late/nearly over covid 14 days period by now. Becoming less and less contagious every day, especially after day 7.

So one has to question what the point is, and how effective it is, to isolate the whole bubble. It's disruptive, and achieves often very little.

And you don't want every bubble, in every year group, in every school, being isolated every 2 weeks.

No one minds if it is necessary. Or effective. But when you are questioning how necessary. And effective, it is. One really has to question whether this could be better managed?

If you have symptoms and go for a test, all other members of your household are invited to be tested. Not sure what you think they’ve done wrong. 🙄

We all know there needs to be more testing....look at the Liverpool pilot.

Yes, following current guidelines she shouldn't have got the child tested.....but it's turned into a good thing.

"who then pass it to their grandparents "

Eh?

No one is supposed to be seeing their grandparents atm. In lockdown. And you wouldn't see your grandchildren if you were that vulnerable , would you?

So that doesn't really apply?

"when you test you can also test household members since homes are one of the primary sources of transmission. In fact you’re very much encouraged to."

That's not what I have read. You are not encouraged to. At all. You are simply told to isolate.

Only testing for those with symptoms.

I get what you are saying.. If they'd followed procedure she would have been off for 14 days (so stopped her spread) but whole class and teachers wouldn't.

Our school had similar scenerio.. Everyone off... No one else showed any sign of it.

It may have made absolute sense to have the child tested, even if technically the child didn’t “need” a test.

A friend of mine developed symptoms and it was very obvious the only place she could have caught it is from one of her kids. Testing them both meant the school knew which staff and pupils had been exposed.

We need more capacity to test people without symptoms rather than complaining about it when it does.

No one is supposed to be seeing their grandparents atm. In lockdown. And you wouldn't see your grandchildren if you were that vulnerable , would you?

Some grandparents do wrap around care, and informal childcare is allowed... so another wrong statement.

Regardless of whether they should have tested, the children in the class have had contact with a positive case and therefore need to isolate.

The OP is trying to highlight that following current guidance the child would not have been tested and would have isolated for 14 days.
I get the point she is making.

You’re right OP she didn’t need to test but thankfully she decided to err on the side of caution. She has potentially saved lives.

@JoeWicksSurvivor

The OP is trying to highlight that following current guidance the child would not have been tested and would have isolated for 14 days. I get the point she is making.

So do I, but the fact remains that the children in school have had contact with a positive case.

Well if parents had stuck to the rules nobody would know x was positive. Chances are some kids in that bubble inc possibly your own child have it and are asymptomatic. So would have carried on spreading it in school, in after school childcare, in the supermarket. Some families won’t be abiding by the rules and would have gone and visited family, etc.

So thankfully they got tested.

I think the govt should change guidance saying if you live with someone who has it you should be tested regardless of symptoms.

I have only tested once but the form asked about symptoms for person 1 and then asked if we wanted to add other members of the household. So we did.

The parents used common sense and acted in a way more likely to drive down the R rate that the government's policies.

If we had the ability to test then QUICKLY trace and TEST all known contacts, we'd have a much better chance of containing the virus as we'd be more likely to have covid +ve pupils/individuals and their households isolating.

We have to stop being so self-centred, thinking about our own personal inconvenience. and develop a social conscience for the good of the nation as a whole.

Rainbow, I never made a statement. But if grandparents who do wrap around childcare are particularly vulnerable, then most parents who were concerned for the welfare of their parents would hdbr at least tried to arrange alternative childcare, different hours with their employer by now.

So yes. I still maintain that if a grandparent is that vulnerable, they shouldn't be seeing grandchildren from op's bubble which could have covid.

"Some families won’t be abiding by the rules and would have gone and visited family, etc."

Mogg but you can't close whole bubbles, year groups etc, just because .... because some idiots won't abide by the rules?

@TellerTuesday4EVA
So a parent acted in what they thought was a responsible manner and her child has tested positive, yet you’re more bothered that you’re going to have to have your child at home for 2 weeks? Aren’t you a joy! How about actually being thankful that she DID get her child tested so that the poor child didn’t spread the virus to the other children AND the adults in the class.

I don't think think the OP is annoyed,more just pointing out how ridiculous it is

@Ignoringequally I was just agreeing that the guidance seems wrong. I’m having to homeschool at the mo and although it is difficult I fully accept it.

The current guidance seems intended to cause blanket isolation instead of pinpoint testing. Presumably because it uses less resources.

Everyone needing/wanting a test where we live has managed to book a next day test done locally and got test results back in 48hours.

@Oblomov20

"Some families won’t be abiding by the rules and would have gone and visited family, etc."

Mogg but you can't close whole bubbles, year groups etc, just because .... because some idiots won't abide by the rules?

I’m not suggesting they do. The bubble was closed because they’d been in contact with a positive case.

@MrsHerculePoirot

If you have symptoms and go for a test, all other members of your household are invited to be tested. Not sure what you think they’ve done wrong. 🙄

Unfortunately this is no longer true. Only symptomatic people are told to be tested, not whole houses. I have had cause to check this week as I have a meme bear of staff isolating with three members of their family positive, but because they don’t have symptoms they are claiming they can’t be tested which obviously puts the rest of my team at risk as we don’t know if we have been infected or not. The new rules are ridiculous, but skewed to keep people in work and school, even though that will likely spread the virus further...

@TellerTuesday4EVA

But what I'm saying is X didn't have any symptoms should following guidelines shouldn't have tested unless they developed any. X should 100% of self isolated because of her DM's positive test but if X hadn't been tested the rest of the class would be carrying on as normal. DYSWIM?

But then the asymptomatic child would be spreading it all round classmates and staff!!! So what if the child didn't have symptoms? Their parents were positive- and so were they.

So at least some of you understand the point I am trying to get across. There's now 14 days of all 30 children being at home even though they have all had contact as of last week when the contagiousness was higher so they've all been exposed already anyway.