Please only get a covid test if you have covid symptoms.

[Bluewavescrashing]

Only 3 symptoms indicate the need for covid testing.
Persistent or continuous dry cough
Fever
Loss of taste and / or smell.

If you have a cold, you do not need a covid test.
If you have a sore throat - no test.
Vomiting or stomach pain - no test.
Carry on going to work, kids to school or nursery as long as you are well enough to do so.

Please don't waste tests which are on short supply.

Far too many armchair virologists about for my liking. Deciding that based on their wide sample size of TWO that they are free to interpret whatever symptom they like as being a need for a Covid test.
Maybe a sore throat should be on the list, maybe it shouldn’t. We can all have opinions on this but as we know, opinions are like arseholes.

Just follow the fucking guidance on testing. None of us here know any better than the people making this guidance up. It is not for your interpretation. It is for you to follow measures that are designed to pick up as many cases as possible whilst not running out of tests completely.

The problem with getting a test isn't the strain of the demand but the failing of the booking system.

Ds had a temperature, he has a cold. He gets a fever every time he gets a cold. So when he hit 38.6c I booked him a test which is back negative, because it's a cold. These are the games we'll play all winter long I suppose.

Agree, but as others have said, people are being forced to have them. DD works in a pub, felt unwell , but wasn't worried it was COVID. Pub manager wouldn't let her go back to work without a test. Which meant she had to get out of bed, at 830pm, feeling ill, and I had to take her on an hour long round trip to a testing centre. All a waste of time and NHS resources 🙄

@WankPuffins If the government revised its list to actually reflect the evidence (including that there are differences between how children and adults typically react to Covid infection), I think that would help avoid the situation in which you currently find yourself. At the moment, anyone who has looked into the subject at all knows that the official UK list of testable symptoms misses some really common Covid symptoms such as sore throat. Schools are understandably concerned about any children who have Covid (not just the minority who develop the UK government-approved symptoms). That is leading schools to require tests for a wider range of symptoms, but obviously head teachers are not medical experts and may cast the symptoms net too wide. What we need is a list of symptoms that reflects the latest evidence and isn't artificially narrow. That is the only way to get widespread agreement as to what warrants a test.

DD works in a pub, felt unwell , but wasn't worried it was COVID. Pub manager wouldn't let her go back to work without a test.

What were the symptoms?

But most common colds DO include one of the 3 symptoms. A colds symptoms are also fever, cough and loss of taste or smell, amongst other symptoms too.

Everyone is going to be getting common colds this year, we have all been indoors and not mixing for 6 months, our immune systems are lower than normal and we will catch colds- bottom line is we need MORE tests, not berating each other for getting tested in the first place!

@AnEleanor

“Not having one of the symptoms isn’t a sign that you don’t need a test just that you shouldn’t get one because we don’t have the capacity to cope.”

Hahah, great summary of the situation!

This absolutely.

I'm following the guidance but if you look at e.g. Germany, there you speak to a doctor who takes a full picture and recommends whether you need a test.

Here we shut gp practices!

But if they don't include any of the 3 symptoms then people should not be getting tested. Our government is very specific about that.

The government is specific about it not because the advice is right, but because they need to ration tests because there is insufficient capacity.

Being honest about this would probably improve compliance.

In children and young people the symptoms of COVID are not the same as in adults. There is an outbreak on my son's campus (not in the UK) and the three most common symptoms are - in order - fatigue, headache and (but definitely not universal) loss of smell/taste.

@OnlyFoolsnMothers

My daughter had a phelm filled cough this morning and hasn’t cough for 3hrs- that’s not a dry persistent cough

Read up on persistent cough.

Does not matter if wet or dry. The wet/dry distinction has been made up.

If we could have more clarity about what a continuous cough was it would help.

Ds has a cold. He sniffs snot and then coughs approx once per hour. (I do remind him to blow his nose but you know what kids are like)

He coughs a bit when he’s lying down at night as he has done with every cold since he was born.

But the only guidance about ‘continuous cough’ relates to ‘3 coughing episodes a day’-what is an episode? This is where the confusion and worry lies. I kept him off school mainly because I didn’t want him upset by being sent home but do I attempt to get him a test?

I’m sure I’m not the only one in this situation.

[quote LilyPond2]**@WankPuffins* If the government revised its list to actually reflect the evidence (including that there are differences between how children and adults typically react to Covid infection), I think that would help avoid the situation in which you currently find yourself. At the moment, anyone who has looked into the subject at all knows that the official UK list of testable symptoms misses some really common Covid symptoms such as sore throat. Schools are understandably concerned about any* children who have Covid (not just the minority who develop the UK government-approved symptoms). That is leading schools to require tests for a wider range of symptoms, but obviously head teachers are not medical experts and may cast the symptoms net too wide. What we need is a list of symptoms that reflects the latest evidence and isn't artificially narrow. That is the only way to get widespread agreement as to what warrants a test.[/quote]
I agree.

But there’s no way on earth I’m taking up a rest for a runny nose that lasted less than 36 hours. She’s fine now. She will be 100% on Monday but the head won’t let her go in.

It’s maddening. There are so many children at that school who are off, another was sent home Friday as he said he had a stomach ache, again told to test! The parents were fuming as he said that every Friday last year to try and get out of PE.

Governors have already been contacted by many parents last few days, I think the head won’t be so over zealous by Monday.

I'm really confused.
Where we love there was a spike in infection rates and we told to get tested even without any symptoms.

The council did a whole promotion on making sure you get tested even if you dont have symptoms to reduce the transmission.
As a key worker I've been told I can get a test whenever I want even without symptoms.
Has all this changed now.
The council has stopped all the walk in testing units and changed them to appointment only.
But no one has specifically said only get tested if you have symptoms

I was told when my kids go back to school any teacher or student with symptoms would get a test straight away.
I was told the school would have access to tests as needed but all I'm hearing now is people are being irresponsible and testing when they shouldn't and its our own fault tests have run out.
It isn't our own fault.
This government is incompetent there is no other way to put it.
The pandemic started over 6 months ago and there still isn't sufficient testing capacity. I really cant believe the incompetence.

I find it interesting that there is so much overlap between people who think it's correct to ignore official guidance on testing because they think it's illogical and wrong and people who are furious that anyone would consider meeting in a group of six

What an excellent point!

@Contactscontact

If we could have more clarity about what a continuous cough was it would help.

Ds has a cold. He sniffs snot and then coughs approx once per hour. (I do remind him to blow his nose but you know what kids are like)

He coughs a bit when he’s lying down at night as he has done with every cold since he was born.

But the only guidance about ‘continuous cough’ relates to ‘3 coughing episodes a day’-what is an episode? This is where the confusion and worry lies. I kept him off school mainly because I didn’t want him upset by being sent home but do I attempt to get him a test?

I’m sure I’m not the only one in this situation.

It is not continuous cough, it is persistent cough.

An episode is when someone coughs more than just a single throat clearing cough imo.

It sounds like your child's cough meets the threshold.

“ I find it interesting that there is so much overlap between people who think it's correct to ignore official guidance on testing because they think it's illogical and wrong and people who are furious that anyone would consider meeting in a group of six”

How could you possibly know this fgs. You’d better be able to provide a bigger sample size than two!

Just follow the fucking guidance on testing. None of us here know any better than the people making this guidance up. It is not for your interpretation. It is for you to follow measures that are designed to pick up as many cases as possible whilst not running out of tests completely.

And also this

Far too many armchair virologists about for my liking. Deciding that based on their wide sample size of TWO that they are free to interpret whatever symptom they like as being a need for a Covid test.
I am going by:
the Zoe study which to the best of my knowledge has the largest sample size of any study
the WHO
the advice given by the health authorities in various developed European countries with much lower death rates than the UK (not that that narrows the field much).

The UK took ages to add loss of smell as a test symptom. Presumably in the week before it did so, lots of the posters on here would have been asserting that loss of smell wasn't a Covid symptom because The Roolz said it wasn't, and that anyone getting tested for loss of smell was wasting resources.

Our government is very specific about that

Tbh I’m a teacher, so I’m pretty suspicious of anything our government are specific about. They’re a bunch of incompetent, self serving idiots.

Gastric symptoms and sore throats are in the top 5 symptoms for children - I linked to a study discussed on Inside Science (radio 4) a while ago. Children present differently to adults.

Our government have failed at every single stage.

I casually mentioned to my employer that the kids had colds already, and I was immediately told to stay off work until we had negative test results. It’s really frustrating, but I haven’t worked there long so didn’t want to argue.

It’s continuous.

It is for you to follow measures that are designed to pick up as many cases as possible whilst not running out of tests completely.
But the current rules ignore two of the three most common symptoms in children!

@Contactscontact

It’s continuous.

That was to @ChanceChanceChance

@Contactscontact

It’s continuous.

How right you are! Sorry.

"But if they don't include any of the 3 symptoms then people should not be getting tested. Our government is very specific about that."

Our government are a ruthlessly incompetent shitshow that doesnt know its arse from its elbow. They've fucked up on testing capacity yet again. This increase in demand was entirely predictable.

DGD was sent home because she came out with a cold at nursery!

I agree with PP that I go by the Covid Zoe list of 6 clusters of symptoms, not the government guidelines! DGD has previously come out with hives on and off - which is a symptom in children. DS tested her on Day 4 - she was negative but her brother (6 week old baby) was positive. We all assume she got it, passed it to the baby and by the time DS got the home test kit, she was showing negative!

DD lost her sense of smell for a few days in March - at that time, the government did not recognise it as a symptom and there was no testing in the community anyway, except hospital cases. Yet as her partner, a doctor had caught the virus off patients, I think it’s safe to assume she really did get it off him.