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 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

PHE are advising schools that if they have a positive test, the bubble should be sent home to isolate for 14 days. They also ask a series of questions of staff who have had contact, re proximity/length of time. Depending on the answers, staff may or may not have to isolate also.

If a child in the bubble goes on to develop symptoms, they should test and their family should self isolate.

@user34254356

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

Surely they can’t do that?? It’s a test for the person who has symptoms but the whole household isolates until a negative result comes back. If it’s positive, the whole household isolates for the 14 days (the ill person for 10) unless the other members of the household develop symptoms... then they get a test and their isolation period of ten days starts from then?

No wonder they’re running out if schools are making it up as they go along.

@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 that is true. I'm only suggesting that the government might say this as the system is falling apart. I'm genuinely concerned that there are people who have symptoms which are much more likely to be covid who can't get a test because a child with a cold and cough has to be tested. In an ideal world we would test them all but it looks like the system can't cope.

@Ethelfleda

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?

The idea is to catch any other positives, and then trace and test their contacts too. A negative result wouldn’t allow you to stop self-isolating (because as you say, you could still be incubating it).

So child A tests positive. You don’t know whether they are the index case, or whether they caught it off asymptomatic child B (or Child C or D or whoever) in their bubble.

If you test child B and they are also positive, you then also have the rest of their contacts self-isolating too, and the aunt of child B who saw them the previous weekend and works in a nursing home, can test and start self-isolating too.

If child B is negative, no need for Aunt B to test or self isolate if she doesn’t live in the same household, because at the time she was in contact with Child B, they were negative. Child B and their household will still have to self-isolate for two weeks though, in case they develop symptoms later.

This is really standard infection control. Same as if you are exposed to MRSA or CRE in hospital. You have to follow the chain back as far as it goes to make sure you have caught everyone.

And yes i know that isn’t what the guidance says. That’s because we don’t have enough tests, and don’t have track and trace running properly. It is what Germany, NZ, and a lot of Asian countries did though, and it works.

ChristmasCarcass
Ah I see. That makes sense.

Just a shame there aren’t enough tests available for this strategy

I know Ethelfleda. One of the best ways to stay on top of this is to test as much as possible, but our system seems to have fallen down at least in part because the rise in cases has coincided with a return to school meaning that there are more 'colds' around. That would be fine if at least 2 of the 3 criteria for testing didn't have an overlap with the common cold.

I wonder whether perhaps a better idea might have been to have done what other countries i.e. Sweden have done and recommended that anyone ill should stay away from others and that if you have cold/flu like symptoms you shouldn't be in school or work. This might have at least slowed the spread of 'things that meet the criteria for COVID but probably aren't' and left a bit of capacity in the system to test anyone with a cold that also has a temp and/or a cough so we could find the ones that are COVID and trace their contacts.

At the moment we seem to have the worst of all worlds.

So I have a bad cold, sore throat, shivery and very tired. A slight change in taste but nothing dramatic.
But no temp or cough.

But I’m a secondary school teacher. I would normally dose up with paracetamol and go to work on Monday. I’ve got young kids so I try very hard not to take time off because I may need to with them.
So do I get a test just to be safe?
On Monday I will teach about 120 children.

I’m so confused. What about all the people with no symptoms at all?!?!

I can't help thinking that some of the money being proposed for the ridiculous moonshot suggestion might be better spent in providing a fall back for people needing to take time off because they or their children are sick, so as to discourage them from going into work or school.

@Ethelfleda no wonder they are running out of tests as i was actually advised to make up symptoms and test the family! there aren't any tests anyway - we just tested our DC with symptoms.

Goslowlysideways

In your position I would email my head and the head of HR. See what they say.

I’m a secondary teacher - I totally get the teacher drive to go in.

A change in taste is one of the criteria for getting a test. I think you probably should get tested, although I understand why the lack of capacity might put you off.

@SmileEachDay Good idea.
@RafaIsTheKingOfClay true but it’s just because it’s a cold I think.

@Goslowlysideways the guidance specifically says if you have ONE of the three symptoms listed, you have a temperature so should surely be clear to get tested?

Last Sat I booked a test for myself as I had no sense of taste or smell. DH drove me, but didn't book a test as no symptoms.

At the drive-through testing centre DH was pressurised into getting a test because "it would save him coming back". I didn't have COVID, and he wasted a test because the staff were poorly trained.

@OverTheRubicon I don’t have a temperature.
But I’ve decided to get a test posted. I feel grim.

Goslowlysideways

Good decision. Let work know now, then go to bed - lots of fluids, paracetamol and sleep. Hope you feel better.

I work in a covid service and the people who shouldn't be getting tested are those with zero symptoms that have been in contact with a positive case. Then they say 'Johns test is negative so does he need to isolate?' Yes. He. Fucking. Does. Its a waste of a test as if John then develops symptoms John trots off for a test. Many tests are being wasted in this manner.
As for the symptoms many children do just have a runny nose with Covid-19 but because its not listed they are discouraged from testing .

I know Go. I was in two minds. As you say it could just be that you’ve got a cold and there is an issue with capacity. I do think you’ve made the right decision given the sore throat, chills & tiredness alongside the change in taste.

My Son has a cold. A cold is going around his class however he has a cough with it & I can't book a test for him as no slots. I can't send him to school with the cough even though it most likely caused by a cold. He always gets a cough with a cold.

Can anyone explain when we can send the kids back to school. DS2 has a cough and has now tested negative.

a) can DS2 go back to school or do we need to wait till his cough goes away or finish his 10 day isolation?
b) can DS1 go back to school now? We didn't test him as he didn't have symptoms

@Northernsoullover

I work in a covid service and the people who shouldn't be getting tested are those with zero symptoms that have been in contact with a positive case. Then they say 'Johns test is negative so does he need to isolate?' Yes. He. Fucking. Does. Its a waste of a test as if John then develops symptoms John trots off for a test. Many tests are being wasted in this manner. As for the symptoms many children do just have a runny nose with Covid-19 but because its not listed they are discouraged from testing .

@Northernsoullover It is interesting to hear from someone with first hand experience. You could do an AMA

Do you get people testing because they want to do X next week? Someone I knew got a test before visiting parents.

Your child can go back after a negative test as soon as they feel well enough to return. And the sibling can return immediately.

@user34254356
Immediately, or most likely Monday- both of them

At the drive-through testing centre DH was pressurised into getting a test because "it would save him coming back"
Yes - we had this - told all three of us may as well get tested. This was vetoed further down the line by the enthusiastic one's colleagues.