Schools / quarantine/ NHS - what happens if....

[porktangle]

So if a person in a school bubble tests positive for covid, the whole bubble has to self isolate for 14 days even if say your own child is tested and is negative.

Child at home in quarantine then requires parents / household to quarantine too - and obviously will need the childcare or 14 days.

NHS parent and NHS rules are any sniff of quarantine need and person at risk needs to be tested to release you all or confirm self isolation.

So how will it work if my NHS manager says I have to return because of negative testing protocol (which is designed to stop people self isolating all the time) but school don't have guidance that matches and says you all have to isolate for 14 days even with negative swabs galore??

I know what you mean @porktangle
I’m due to go back to work for the nhs in September after mat leave. We have 3 kids. If we have to self isolate every time they, or someone in their bubbles has a temp, I’ll never work! Babies first winter in nursery is always a nightmare for illness.
Hopefully testing will mean it won’t be necessary. But I don’t think they’ll test babies.

Thinking about how on Earth we will make it work is giving me a headache!

My school has said that if a child for adult in a bubble shows symptoms the whole bubble will have to isolate.

My understanding would be that the family won't have to isolate unless they are the child who has the symptoms or goes on to develop them.

It's not if they get a temp, its only if it's a positive test and confirmed covid result. If we had to isolate for every cough or temperature we wouldn't be at school.

I think it's any cough or temp and the whole bubble has to isolate until tested - which may take at least a few days to do and get results back and if some parents don't want to test, everyone will have to remain in isolation until they do. Then if there is a positive, it's a definite 14 day.

It will completely screw over lone parents of multiple children over winter months where coughs and temps are everywhere. Workplaces will only be sympathetic for a while. And in the NHS and other frontline services, it's not the same rules.

No it's not any temp or cough. It's purely if there's a positive test. So child with symptoms would be sent home. If tested and it's negative no issues. If they are tested and it's positive then the others in the bubble are then sent home to isolate.

"When a child, young person or staff member develops symptoms compatible with coronavirus, they should be sent home and advised to self-isolate for 7 days. Their fellow household members should self-isolate for 14 days. All staff and students who are attending an education or childcare setting will have access to a test if they display symptoms of coronavirus.

Where the child, young person or staff member tests positive, the rest of their class/group within their childcare or education setting should be sent home and advised to self-isolate for 14 days. The other household members of that wider class/group do not need to self-isolate unless the child, young person or staff member they live with in that group subsequently develops symptoms."

My child has had cv-19.

If someone in his bubble gets symptoms and the bubble have to isolate for 14 days. Does he still.have to isolate even though he's already had it?

@WineHooray you will find his bubble will be closed. Schools can't send in sub teachers so if the teacher is off then the bubble can't be in.

Thanks for the guidance @user1000000000000000001 it sounds like a lot of schools are interpreting differently and plan to send all bubbles home when 1 has symptoms.

They will be wrong to do that and you will find very quickly that that's unfeasible

User - yes, this is what I thought. It's a bit rubbish though as it means both DH and I being completely unnecessarily off work!

School I work at the bubble isolates but not the families unless they are those of the affected person. The whole bubble will then return at the same time.

I guess the thinking is the whole idea that the only people more likely to display symptoms are the 2 adults in the bubble and they can't be replaced.

,you will find his bubble will be closed. Schools can't send in sub teachers so if the teacher is off then the bubble can't be in.*

Yep. We only have one teacher per bubble too. Bit envious of those who have 2!

There can be no switching of people from/into bubbles so if a staff member is I'll for any reasons, the whole bubble has to stay home.

*ill

Hate to say it.. but there's a huge hole in this logic, specially if working on the basis of testing symptomatic children as a base line..

Many may studies have concluded that children often have very mild or asymptomatic presentations of Covid. It's one of the bigger limitations in the methodology of students which claimed children dont spread it (they didnt test children as they didnt show symptoms and therefore assumed they weren't catching it).

Therefore even if your child dosent have symptoms it's still very possible for you to catch it, and you wouldn't know until a week later, at.which point you've taken it to work etc..

So realistically methodological and frequent testing would be needed to manage and detect CV in children and schools. At least until we better understand and have more evidence surrounding child presentations of Covid.

LittleFoxKit

There are gaping 'plot holes' in all of it!

We just have to work with it as best we can.

Cos the economy...

“ It's a bit rubbish though as it means both DH and I being completely unnecessarily off work!”

I expect they’ll want you to work from home. Don’t they already have a policy for self-isolation?

Schools and childcare reopening isn’t a return to life as it was in February and parents and employers will have to deal with that.
For the last two weeks, we’ve been told to find solutions, to be positive and to use common sense. We’ve done that. Our priority is the safety of the children in our care and the people working with them. We have to follow guidance or we’re not insured. Worse than that, we could be responsible for an outbreak that kills people.

You and your employers are going to have to work round this. You won’t be able to ask that we change the rules because it doesn’t fit with what works for you. It’s a whole new relationship at the moment, though we’re doing our best. Whether that will change as lockdown eases, I don’t know.

For the last two weeks, we’ve been told to find solutions, to be positive and to use common sense. We’ve done that. Our priority is the safety of the children in our care and the people working with them. We have to follow guidance or we’re not insured. Worse than that, we could be responsible for an outbreak that kills people.

Exactly!

I am a teacher working with a key worker bubble. Just awaiting the results of one child's test result. I have been told by head that if positive, I have to self isolate for 14 days. I am unclear though as to what that means for the rest of my household. Do I isolate from them? Do we all isolate? Don't really get it!!

I think it's only you that has to isolate unless you yourself have symptoms and test positive.

Just read a post further up that has answered my question.

I expect they’ll want you to work from home. Don’t they already have a policy for self-isolation?

Frontline NHS so can't work from home?

This is why rigorous track and trace needs to be in place before schools allow more children in.

Alternatively, the KW children are kept very separate to the others, which some schools are giving as an option to parents.

A number (10 or 11) councils are due to trial T&T models very soon.

I wonder if it's worth discussing your situation with the school OP.

“ Frontline NHS so can't work from home?”

Won’t they change your duties? One of my frontline keyworkers has had to isolate twice and that’s what they’ve done the second time.

Maybe some frontline workers can have their duties changed but most people I work with (and I would expect ALOT of other frontliners) can't. They need to be face to face with patients on the ward. We have medical suspension until we are tested and then back to frontline. Anything else is unpaid leave.

I don't know why anyone in the NHS would have needed to be self isolating a lot. Since lockdown either you or your family member (whoever has symptoms) has been tested straight away to release you so the only time you actually have to stay home for 14 days is if you are positive and then it's medical leave.

Having had my 10 year-old tested recently, I think relying on testing of children is going to be extremely difficult unless they come up with saliva testing or similar. She managed to do the swab by herself but a younger child wouldn't be able to and it would also be extremely difficult for a parent to swab the tonsils of an unwilling and resistant child.