Does she need a test or not

[CaviarAndCigarettes]

I'm sorry friends I am so confused with all of this so would welcome some advice.

We have all had a cold. The lovely bright green snot type. Three year old caught it last. She now has a chesty cough alongside the snotty nose. It's not continuous and she is clearly shifting something.
None of us have had a temperature at any point.

Does she need to be tested?

What evidence based resource are you using to advise a test for an ‘occasional’ cough?

The nhs says a continuous cough means three episodes. Not necessarily that you’re coughing all day.

[quote Fast90]**@Mippi* what are you talking about? The government and NHS criteria for testing is clear, a continuous* cough. What evidence based resource are you using to advise a test for an ‘occasional’ cough? This kind of clap trap is in large contributing to the lack of available tests[/quote]
My child has an occasional cough (a few times an hour at most) and has Covid.
A continuous cough is 3 episodes in 24 hours.

@User27aw

No. My ds has a cough and cold. His school asked me to phone 119 to check whether his cough was classed as continous. 119 told me a continous cough is coughing non stop without a break for about an hour.

But NHS lists that (coughing for an hour as 119 told you) OR 3 separate episodes of coughing in a 24 hour period (I think this is where the ambiguity arises - what actually constitutes an episode of coughing?)

What's an episode of coughing though? Just one "cough-cough"?

No.

But NHS lists that (coughing for an hour as 119 told you) OR 3 separate episodes of coughing in a 24 hour period (I think this is where the ambiguity arises - what actually constitutes an episode of coughing?)

Yes agreed. I think the coughing a lot for more than an hour is pretty understandable - if I cough 4 or 5 times across an hour then not again for the rest of day, that's not coughing a lot. 4 or 5 times an hour for several hours is a lot.

An episode of coughing is presumably not a single cough as 3 coughs in 24 hours isn't very continuous? But how many times in a row do you have to cough for it to count as an episode?

Yes I definitely would for a dry cough

Yes, a test should be done. Based on the details, this matches the Covid symptom list as outlined by the NHS. I'm shocked at the amount of people advising a test is not needed. This is partly how Covid has been allowed to spread so much, as people are not fully educated as to what symptoms require testing.

@Char2015

Yes, a test should be done. Based on the details, this matches the Covid symptom list as outlined by the NHS. I'm shocked at the amount of people advising a test is not needed. This is partly how Covid has been allowed to spread so much, as people are not fully educated as to what symptoms require testing.

Local GPs have been telling children not to get tested with coughs as described in OP. (or all the parents of these children have told us fabulous lies).

So "not fully educated" is not an accurate description of the problem.

I'd word it as "no one bloody knows what the possible symptoms are still and booking a test is so hard that we're being nowhere near cautious enough as a country."

Government website says for children a cough with no snot or phlegm. If you have all had colds and she doesn't have a fever I'd say no.

Have you got a link for that @Kitcat122? I can’t find it.

The NHS website still says this...

So at the end of the conversation I'm no clearer really on what to do, which really shows that the advice is ambiguous and confusing.
When she first began to cough there were no episodes. I wouldn't really class be current cough as an episode personally but 🤷‍♀️

Confused and will keep her off nursery