My kids returned to school /nursery 2 weeks ago. Already had to have youngest tested in first week back due to temperature at nursery - it was negative but scary for everyone involved from nursery to ourselves and of course our toddler having a throat and nasal swab done in a car park.
They’ve now got a cough. Eldest has a cold (sneezing, no temp, no cough) My toddler always seems to have a cough with a cold. Based on previous years, it’s likely to last a long time and so is unlikely to be covid but this scenario poses a problem that parents of toddlers and asthmatic kids are going to experience again and again.
It seems so impractical that everytime they have a cough they have to be tested and stay off Nursery 14 days or longer until it’s gone. For us, that will probably be next March now as they have persistent winter coughs and have had every winter since birth. Going by guidelines that means the whole family is in Quarantine for 14 days each time but what if, like previous years it lasts weeks at a time, has a few days respite then starts all over again? Are we to write off work & school completely until next year or a vaccine? Nursery say they don’t really know what to do as all kids will get bugs, snotty noses and coughs and the long term isolation of lockdown means toddler’s immune systems have not had to fight shared toddler bugs and so they’re going to get everything.
I just don’t know how this is going to work longer term. Employers aren’t going to be happy with staff off all winter cos they have susceptible kids & with so many looking for work, it won’t be long before people are being replaced. We’re going to struggle paying for nursery with statutory sick pay for a place the toddler can’t attend and my eldest who rarely ever has a sniffle is likely to miss a lot of school in their final year of primary because their sibling catches everything.
What are parents going to do? What’s reasonable when covid is unlikely but there are still symptoms?