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.

*I spent yesterday arguing with dds school about this.

She’s got a bit of a cold. Just a drippy nose. No cough. No temp.

They called me to pick her up and told me to get her tested. There is no need (and I’ve had the test before I had my c section last month, Dd would lose her shit, I’m not testing her for a sniffly nose).

We ended at a standoff yesterday. I said fine then, I’ll keep her off for two week. They said that wasn’t acceptable and that I needed to get her a test. She’s not displaying the symptoms needed for a test (and has woken up this morning with the stuffy nose gone).

The head will call me Monday apparently. It’s a joke*

Yes, it's a joke. DS has had a cold all week and had 1 day off. The school were fine with him being back. He had no temp or cough. They didn't ask for a test. They even sent out guidance on Fri about the differences between Covid and colds! I don't get it how schools can be so different. If the symptoms of Covid are the same as a cold (eg snotty running nose) then we're in for a rough ride
Even Boris said on the briefing don't get tested if you don't have symptoms.

@Timeforanotherusername agree in principle but we can’t be in the same position as @Choconuttolata describes. It took hours of constantly refreshing the gov.uk site from 4am this morning to get a test appointment and I consider us the lucky ones as friends have tried for days to get a test appointment. If dc1 with the cough was tested alone (1.5hr round trip) and then dc2 sore throats develops further/cough or temp starts, that means whole household isolates again until we can get another test.
It’s the lack of tests that’s the problem and puts us in this position of not being able to do right for doing wrong.

The UK conducts more tests than anywhere else in Europe, and we have a shortage. Part of that is down to distribution I’m sure but part has to be down to people getting tested without need. Gets are the new toilet roll.

No! A few people probably do get tests unnecessarily but not over half the nation or a ridiculous number.

There is a shortage of tests because the government didint predict that children get colds and coughs from the first autumn term...not because of the public!

We don’t have enough tests for this level of hysteria!!

You can see why it's difficult to add fatigue, though. It's so subjective. My mum is insistent she's been fatigued since 1986

Ha ha, I know how she feels!

I'm in bed with a heavy cold which was kindly passed to me by DS when he literally coughed in my face! He was back at school just 3 days when he got it. He says no one else at his school has been ill. He doesn't go anywhere else except the park so someone gave it to him which proves the s/d measures don't work.
I'm too ill to get a test even if one was available!

Well, I have to provide my employer with a negative test before I can go back to work so I'm afraid I'll have to disobey the OP.

Pragmatically, this is good advice, given the state the UK currently finds itself in.

The real question, though, is why on earth it was not possible for the capacity for testing to be ramped up in anticipation ?

What we need to be able to do is Test, Trace, Isolate. Not exactly rocket science, why are we so bad at it all?

It was bad enough when tests were in such short supply in March, that testing outside hospitals was stopped just when people were being discharged back to nursing homes which were wholly unprepared for residents with Covid or any other serious illness.

Another distraction, blaming people who don't need tests for the shortages. What a state we find ourselves in.

My daughter is symptomatic and it is impossible to get a test in the South East !! We have been going online for two days and there are no available tests!! 2doctors from 111have said she needs testing ....a complete bloody shambles! For now I cannot work as a Registered Nurse because I cannot risk taking the virus into work.

Schools forcing children who have colds to get a test need to be repirted. They need training on the correct symptoms of Covid. Legally the school cannot refuse your child until they see a negative test. They're on a complete piwer trip.

Bbc news said last week part of the shortage of tests is due to children with colds getting tested.
And ppl getting tests before they go on holiday.

The govt need to make guidelines more specific.
A one off high temperature should not be an automatic test.
A child with cold symotoms who then get a low grade fever should not need testing.

37500 tests on Scottish children 37 were positive.

@ChanceChanceChance

Only 3 symptoms indicate the need for covid testing are on the UK list for testing, unlike in other countries, and this is especially worrisome with regard to children as the listed symptoms are rarer in children than some other symptoms that are not included, so many cases of covid are being missed.

The UK does not have:

• adequate testing
• adequate tracing
• adequate isolation

This 100% . The issue isn't with people testing for symptoms which are valid and actual symptoms of covid ( just not listed in the uk - but are listed by the WHO - Covid doesn't change just because it is in the uk)

The issue is with the governments inability to manage the testing situation, it took them too long to get to get to this stage of capacity and now they are twittering on about operation Moonshot yet can't handle the increase of tests from people going back to work and school.

The issue is with the governments inability to manage the testing situation, it took them too long to get to get to this stage of capacity and now they are twittering on about operation Moonshot yet can't handle the increase of tests from people going back to work and school

Agree with all of this. We need to be able to test everyone who potentially has covid, or who has come into contact with covid, to allow proper self-isolation (if my DC tests positive, everyone in the class should get a test, so that any other positives can be picked up, and their contacts can be tested/start self isolating).

After six months this should be the bare minimum for a functioning testing system. Regular screening of healthcare staff and care workers is the next step.

Fucking throwing £100bn at Dominic Cummings’ mates to waste on non-existent technology for Operation Moonshot is a disgrace when we can’t even get basic testing right.

Countries with lower capacity and higher positive rates seem to be managing. Seems we’re special case indeed where everyone must get a test regardless of if they need it.

According to the zoe app people and many others a runny nose is not a symptom of covid. I feel that the government might need to bring out new guidance if they can't increase testing. E.g. If you have a runny nose and a cough you don't need a test (unless you have a fever maybe). Of course this may miss a few children who have a cold and covid but will enable more people with "covid symptoms" who don't have a cold and therefore more likely to be positive to be tested. Also, a cough isn't actually that common in children with covid apparently.

I knew DD didnt need a test but school wouldn't let her back without a negative because she had a cough. So frustrating! I'm £100 down now because I got nowhere with the NHS tests and had to pay for an online test at home kit just to get it done. So fed up.

@Lockdown2TheLockening

I knew DD didnt need a test but school wouldn't let her back without a negative because she had a cough. So frustrating! I'm £100 down now because I got nowhere with the NHS tests and had to pay for an online test at home kit just to get it done. So fed up.

But of she had a cough then she had a listed symptom 🙈

Schools forcing children who have colds to get a test need to be repirted. They need training on the correct symptoms of Covid. Legally the school cannot refuse your child until they see a negative test. They're on a complete piwer trip

A power trip?! Give me strength....

People really baffle me, enforce and adhere to every rule the government bring in like about social distancing, masks, max amount of people meeting without question, this is what the government want so we must obey, yet when the same government give specific reasons for testing everyone is up in arms and the government are wrong.
Either you believe and trust what the government say and tell you to do or you don't, you can't pick and choose what is right and wrong based on your own non medical, non political backgrounds.

What if you’re a teacher with cold symptoms? Risk going in and teaching 120 kids?

@Concerned7777

People really baffle me, enforce and adhere to every rule the government bring in like about social distancing, masks, max amount of people meeting without question, this is what the government want so we must obey, yet when the same government give specific reasons for testing everyone is up in arms and the government are wrong. Either you believe and trust what the government say and tell you to do or you don't, you can't pick and choose what is right and wrong based on your own non medical, non political backgrounds.

Well said. The irony is that sticking to the guidelines around testing - ie getting one when you have symptoms & isolating as required or NOT getting one if you haven’t is arguably one of the most important ones!

If you have a runny nose and a cough you don't need a test

But you could theoretically have a cold AND Covid at the same time, couldn’t you??
Genuine question.

I also don’t get the theory that anyone who has been in a school bubble should get a test if someone in that bubble tests positive if they’re not showing symptoms.

That person could be on day 1 or two of symptoms whereas everyone else in the bubble may have picked it up, but not show a positive yet surely?

@Ethelfleda

If you have a runny nose and a cough you don't need a test

But you could theoretically have a cold AND Covid at the same time, couldn’t you??
Genuine question.

Yes, and you can get a runny.nose caused by covid

What do you do when only one of your DC has symptoms but the parents at your school are expecting the entire family to test negative before you can send the other DC back. It's against government guidelines but unfortunately the expectation is the entire family should be tested

What do you do when only one of your DC has symptoms but the parents at your school are expecting the entire family to test negative before you can send the other DC back. It's against government guidelines but unfortunately the expectation is the entire family should be tested

Report the school, that's bollocks.