Sore throat - what now?

[FunorFitness]

I have developed a sore throat, I get one several times a year and this is the exact same one I always get.

What do I do now? Do I have to isolate, do I have to get tested? How do I go about it?

Does the family have to isolate until it goes or until I have been tested?

[MrsStefani]

Other countries an managing an extensive testing program just fine. Why are we so unable and so unwilling as a public to test. I just don't understand it.

A sore throat is a very common symptom of covid, that's a fact we cannot argue with. And children present differently to adults.

[MrsStefani]

Has anyone read the Zoe link?

[Letseatgrandma]

If teachers with a sore throat need to be tested-our whole school would have closed on Wednesday for the week. Every single teacher has one. We are a small school so it’s not as many people as it sounds, but I’m sure the parents would not have been impressed.

[MrsStefani]

Why would the school close for a week? Testing is so quick.

And they'll be less impressed with the whole school closing for a Covid outbreak and their parents dying!

I'm gobsmacked at people's complacency to this virus.

[Nellodee]

Like I said before, it’s not that having a sore throat isn’ta sign of COVID, it’s just that it’s too common for other reasons to act as a good, cheap screening symptom. We just don’t have the capacity to include it in the list, nor could we cope with the disruption it would cause if it triggered isolation.
Ideally, the minor symptoms could trigger a next day delivery home test but not isolation. That’s a capacity issue, not a disruption issue, and would be potentially achievable.

[NeurotrashWarrior]

Testing is so quick.

Unfortunately not what many are now experiencing, hence sore throats not being listed as a reason to test.

[Aragog]

You can have a test and the results back within 48 hours.

My test took 66 hours to come back.
I also had to 23 hours for a test appointment.

Had I needed to isolate for that time - I didn't as it was a sore throat which led to a cold - I would have not been in school teaching for 4.5 days. We have 2 other teachers at my school with sore throats/colds.

That would have been a possible 3 classes sent home for a week whilst waiting. In fact as we are in year group bubbles - in this case it could well have been 6 classes isolating, and only reception in school.

If we added the children displaying sore throats and colds to that list it would be greater.


I don't think parents would be happy to have their child missing 4-5 days of school every so often as a result.

[MrsStefani]

@Aragog classes only isolate with a positive test.

[NeurotrashWarrior]

@MrsStefani I know of several parents really struggling to get a test for them or their children at the moment. For a couple of days.

Phe are telling all schools to clarify to only test for three main symptoms as there's no capacity.

I've decided not to test my son as he's not coughed since first thing ( the only cough he's done throughout 3 days of being ill) and no other symptoms, though started with a sore throat in him. We all have a slight cold. If it was a month ago I'd have tested.

I'm not actually sure I can get a test locally. There's been many issues.

[Aragog]

Testing is so quick.

But it really isn't right now.
It could be if the government can actually get it all sorted but sadly right now it often isn't.

My sore throat would have led to 4.5 days missed.
My colleagues would have led to 3 days for one, 4.5 days for the other.
Most of us do the Zoe research app so lots of us do get a test through that.

The only quick test I know of was my niece - that was about 12 hours, but a day waiting to get the test - so 1-2 days missed. She did miss school as hers was a cough and a temperature, not just a sore throat.

They all came back negative.

[Aragog]

Mrsstefani

But who will teach the classes if the teachers can't come in due to self isolation? We don't have lots of staff sat around waiting. If it's just one off we can manage, but not lots. Many supply agencies aren't up and running and schools are having to reduce the number of school visitors.

[MrsStefani]

And as a parent, I would rather my children's classes be closed for a few days than risk everyone's health and the whole school completely closing for weeks on end due to a Covid outbreak.

I'm ducking out now as it's a contentious subject. But I just really want to emphasise that it's important not to listen to just the government in this. They have failed and floundered at every opportunity to stop this virus spreading. We need to tackle this virus on an individual level and have some social responsibility.

Good luck everyone, I think we're going to need it.

[NeurotrashWarrior]

@MrsStefani, as a teacher, I'm with you.

I wouldn't be allowed to. I have to weigh up impact of my absence on vulnerable children, baring in mind I may also have to stay off with the toddler or 7 yr old if they have to SI too.

It's a shit show.

[Letseatgrandma]

And as a parent, I would rather my children's classes be closed for a few days than risk everyone's health and the whole school completely closing for weeks on end due to a Covid outbreak.

Me too-I agree with you. I would be happy for my children‘s schools to close for a few days in this situation.

As a teacher though, I’m not allowed to be off for a sore throat. Like I said, we all had sore throats on Wednesday so by the time we would have all managed to get tests (which are NOT quick at the moment as we all know by reading the news as well as threads on here!) the school would have had no teachers for the remainder of the week.

[cantkeepawayforever]

I had classic cold symptoms on Friday - runny nose, sore throat.

I went through the 111 process online. It said crack on as normal with self management and not to test.

As a teacher, I phoned my head and reported what 111 stated. I went into school and taught all day as normal, within the school's usual risk assessment procedures.

Had i had a temperature - 1 of the main symptoms of Covid - I would have been advised to take a test. But I didn't, so I wasn't.

[Hollyhead]

I really think people need to be sensible over winter, there is a continuum between ‘isolate’ and carry on as normal. So if I had a sore throat at the moment I’d stay at home as much as possible, and take every precaution possible at work - i’d wear a face covering all day for instance, and minimise contact with other people. What ‘maximum precautions’ would be for work will obviously depend on what you do.

[Alldoomed]

Reading this thread I think the teachers will be the super spreaders this winter, not the kids !!

[Letseatgrandma]

@Alldoomed

Reading this thread I think the teachers will be the super spreaders this winter, not the kids !!

If that’s the case-it’s the fault of the government guidance, not the teachers.

[cantkeepawayforever]

@Alldoomed

Reading this thread I think the teachers will be the super spreaders this winter, not the kids !!

The thing is, if 111 says 'don't test, this is just a cold' (which is exactly what my symptoms were consistent with), then it would be unreasonable of me to take up a test which could much more usefully be used to find out whether someone with Covid symptoms has Covid or something else.....

Yes, Covid has a variety of symptoms BUT if we treat every possible symptom as if it IS Covid, despite all evidence to the contrary and despite advice from 111, then the disruption this year will be hugely magnified, especially in a scenario where testing capacity is stretched to its limit.

[Aragog]

I think the teachers will be the super spreaders this winter, not the kids !!


So what do you propose?

And who do you think we get the coughs, sore throats and colds from usually?

And the government have already laid the seeds that the teaching staff will be to blame anyway. They did that in the week running up to us returning.

[cantkeepawayforever]

As every NQT knows, every teacher catches multiple colds every year at the start of their career, then gradually develops a cast-iron immune system such that colds become rarer.

We haven't been fully in the classroom for a while - yes, from 1st June, but that was very widely spaced and well ventilated - so my immune system has not faced its daily attacks. it is inevitable that I will get more colds this year than normal. If I choose to declare every one 'possibly Covid' - despite clear advice from 111 - then that is unreasonably disruptive to the children's education, which is likely to be compromised multiple times through things that genuinely could be, or are, Covid.

[woodhill]

So difficult, I really didn't feel well last week

Starts with a headache, sore throat, you don't feel right. Always happened before Covid but now you worry in case you have got it.

[walksen]

Thing is. I have had a runny nose yesterday. This morning I have a familiar tingle in my throat so I have a sore throat on the way too.

For me this normally leads to a hacking cough 2 times out of 3 and I thought about booking a test but thought I'd better not as I haven't got the right symptoms yet.

I am worried tbh. Not about it being covid especially but as a supply teacher 2 weeks into a placement with no work over the summer I don't want to be missing work and being unpaid while I try and organise a test then wait for the results. I could be off for most of the week. This is also bad for my classes who I am only just getting to know.

God forbid I do get worse then test positive.

What if the school decides they might as well replace me?

[TheBlahs]

The data on the Zoe link is pretty worrying though and doesn't actually align to the government's list of top 3 symptoms:

"The top five symptoms in school aged children who test positive for COVID are; fatigue (55%) headache (53%), fever (49%), sore throat (38%) and loss of appetite (35%).

This was different compared to the App’s data on adults; fatigue (87%), headache (72%), loss of smell (60%), persistent cough (54%) and sore throat (49%)."

Worth considering!

[everythingthelighttouches]

If you can get tested easily, especially with a home testing kit, then I'd do it.

No. You can’t get a test easily. At all.

There are thousands of people every day who have one of the three main symptoms, who cannot get a test.

They do not have COVID19 in most cases ( positivity rate is something like 4%).

So they are off work or out of school unnecessarily. This has huge consequences.

The government has selected these three not because they are the only symptoms, but because they have data to suggest these symptoms are most likely associated with covid19.

It is not socially responsible at all to get a Covid test without one of these three symptoms. You are stopping someone else who is more likely than you to have covid19 from getting a test.