Why not test instead of quarantine?

[TheClitterati]

Why can't people returning to uk from France etc, chose to be tested for CV instead of quarantine for 14 days?

They could be tested on entry and again 3 days or so later.

Perhaps the reason is you don't test positive for cv in the incubation period? Does anyone know?

"You think they'd tell us that."

Eh. I think they do! You haven't been paying attention if you didn't know there was an incubation period!!

@Alex50

Because she might develop symptoms within the next 14 days, or have it but be asymptomatic. She might pass it on, so she needs to be kept away from everyone outside her family. It's for the good of everyone. Hopefully, schools will be ready to give appropriate work to children affected by quarantine.

@TheClitterati

They didn't take the opportunity to tell us when we took tests recently. So while it may be "widely known" they really should be expressly telling people who get tested.

Equally, you should be taking an interest.

I got tested recently and the nurse didn't tell me very much at all because she was there to give me the test, not educate me about the disease. It was over in a few minutes, but I knew the self isolation period was 2 weeks anyway so I knew that a negative test didn't mean I could do what I want.

@Penguin007 but the rest of my family don’t have to isolate?

I don't think you do, although if she's a child she'd obviously need to have someone with her all day.

If she becomes symptomatic and tests positive, at that point her whole household would start 14 days of isolation.

She’s 15 so no she will stay at home on her own, I only work part time. It all seems complete nonsense, I can go back to work but my daughter can’t go to school so I could have it and spread it at work 🙄 none of this makes any sense.

Oh and my husband can go back to work so he can spread it as well, my son works in a college so he can carry on and spread it there too. None of us will be working from home come September.

I think I will just get the whole family tested once a week and carry on as normal as much as I can.

That's the way it works. She may not catch it at all. She may catch it and not pass it on to you. Not all members of a household would necessarily get infected.

Hopefully, she would display symptoms and get tested, and then you would know whether you needed to isolate too.

It's not a perfect system, but it's better than your daughter staying at school and mixing in society, and potentially passing it on to many people, as some super-spreaders did at the start of the pandemic.

So if she shows symptoms, she can get a test if negative she can go back to school before the 14 days?

No, because it takes up to 14 days for symptoms to show. You can't cut it short.

But what if she shows symptoms before 14 days, say at 7?

Anyone getting symptoms isolates and gets a test.

And the test comes back negative after she’s has symptoms can she go back to school even though it’s less than 14 days?

@TheClitterati

Why can't people returning to uk from France etc, chose to be tested for CV instead of quarantine for 14 days?

They could be tested on entry and again 3 days or so later.

Perhaps the reason is you don't test positive for cv in the incubation period? Does anyone know?

a) because the incubation period means a negative result is meaningless. b) 3 days later would also be useless. It would need to be 10-14 days later. c)I know this. Many others know this. Just because you seem to have missed this vital information, it doesn't mean it hasn't been communicated. d) take ownership of your own ignorance and stop blaming others for not repeatedly telling you.

@TheClitterati

So when we get negative test results it doesn't mean we don't have cv. You could test negative and still have it.

You think they'd tell us that.

It’s literally on all the Public Health websites.

There's currently a lot more false positives than negatives.
This is factually inaccurate. Studies show 1 in 1000 false positives (so 1 extra person per day has to isolate, who might anyway be poorly with something else nobody wants) and 200 in 1000 false negatives who don't isolate when they need to. That's why contact with someone who has a positive really result matters.
If you have a credible scientific report with different figures, feel free to post it @SodomyNonSapiens.

This is going to be fun and games when kids go back to schools and coughs and colds start flying around. They'd better get their act together on speedy testing and results.

Your daughter has to stay at home for 14 days.

If no symptoms, back to school after 14 days. If symptoms, test.

If negative, back to school when the 14 days is up. If positive, continue to isolate, and the rest of the family also isolates for 14 days.

Yep luckily I have a testing centre 5 mins from my house, I will be there once a week with the family.

It is pointless to test weekly without symptoms. The school won't let you back early, even with a negative test result.

@SpanishRio I wasn’t meaning If a child in her bubble tested positive, I meant with all the cold and flu bugs about I probably will be there weekly.

@Alex50

Yep luckily I have a testing centre 5 mins from my house, I will be there once a week with the family.

WTAF?!

You might! Luckily, there is plenty of capacity for testing.

It's potentially going to be a very disrupted term in schools, unis and workplaces, but hopefully the levels of virus can be kept under control this winter.

Yes the testing centre is hardly used, I booked one the other day, booked 12.45, test at 1.30, home 1.45, received the results at 7.30am, the next morning.