Cold symptoms positive?

[Tartan333]

I know there is a lot of discussion regarding the difference between cold symptoms and covid but has anyone or their dcs actually tested positive with purely cold type symptoms, snotty nose, sore throat, mild cough but no temperature or loss of taste/smell?

My nephew is in quarantine at the moment as one child in his class tested positive - he had a slight cough and a snotty nose and that was all. No temperature/loss of smell.....
He's 9.

My DH, DS and DD all have rotten cold symptoms with coughing, plus diarrhoea in DS's case. A child in DS's class tested positive with no symptoms (both her parents were positive) but we've been told none of my lot need to be tested

Not the child but a parent of a child in my sons class has just had it and described as a cold

Yes, DS's girlfriend works in a primary school and has tested negative with cold symptoms. Pretty worrying that every other person I talk to seems to have or know someone who has a streaming cold at the moment - doesn't say much for how well the various precautionary measures are working.

I meant 'no'!

I was wondering this as myself and DC all have classic cold symptoms, sore throat, blocked nose, sneezing, bit of a cough, but it has made me wonder

Me and my dd (13) have snotty and congested noses, tickly cough (infrequent), sore throats, fatigue and mild headache. Mild nausea and diarrhoea on day 2. We don't meet any criteria for testing and assuming it's a cold but it does make me wonder. She looked almost grey in pallor on the first day too.

My dc tested positive this week with what I could have sworn was just a cold. Apparently there were a lot of children in the same (primary school) class with cold symptoms, all of whom had tested negative afaik, if they could get hold of a test. I don't know whether he is therefore asymptomatic with a cold into the bargain, or symptomatic with what looks like a cold Either way we're all quarantined for the foreseeable, and he's back to his normal self after approx 4 days of snot/coughing/sneezing!

Mine has a mild cough we're isolating until we all get tested. It's frustrating as it's more than likely a normal code and we can't get a test

Might be a silly comment but could you have a cold and COVID at the same time or is that not possible as they are both a coronavirus?

Just wondering if we’re catching otherwise asymptomatic people who are suffering with symptoms from something else?

DC2 tested negative with a just a persistent cough. Friends Dc had all three of the main symptoms and tested negative. Another child in the school tested positive on a routine needed before treatment for other issues test and had at best what was described as sniffles but nothing else.

My daughter had a slight sore throat.

She only went for a test because she was about to go back to college - Tom our surprise she came back positive 😮

The rest of us all tested negative.

She's been really careful and all track and trace could suggest was a bus journey she'd had to make (with masks and SD)

I've just read the new NHS guide to "Is it Covid, cold or flu?"

The problem is, it's just like the lists of things you should or shouldn't eat in pregnancy - every different country has it's own list, and they are all completely different and contradict each other. NHS says a running nose is uncommon in Covid. The European Centre for Disease Control says it's present in 60% of all Covid cases. So who do you believe?

Sendcheese and Ninja. Could be false positives. The false positive rate is very low, but when doing 100000 plus tests a day can still lead to 80 to 400 false positives. They have had several false positives in the Western Isles for example. I'm sure if they lived elsewhere, like Glasgow, would just have been accepted as Covid.

Isn’t the false negative rate much higher than the false positive one?

@Nellodee

I've just read the new NHS guide to "Is it Covid, cold or flu?"

The problem is, it's just like the lists of things you should or shouldn't eat in pregnancy - every different country has it's own list, and they are all completely different and contradict each other. NHS says a running nose is uncommon in Covid. The European Centre for Disease Control says it's present in 60% of all Covid cases. So who do you believe?

In that instance I would be inclined to believe the European Centre for disease control - possibly do a comparison of their list against say the US CDC, there is likely going to be a lot of cross over. It took too long for them to agree to add loss of taste and/or smell to the list in the uk. They dont want people testing for other known symptoms (well known but not listed in the uk) as the test and trace is a shambles (as everyone can see).

Why are some people on here having the whole family tested, or did you all have symptoms?

@Glitterynails

Isn’t the false negative rate much higher than the false positive one?

Yes. False negative rate is about 30%, false positive 1%

Looking at Ecdc papers, they still repeat time and again, fever and cough as the main symptoms. I suspect the 60% with running noses are "as well as" rather than in isolation.

I think the issue is, although a high percentage of Covid sufferers have runny noses, a much much higher percentage of runny noses are caused by other things.

However, I can't see how NHS can say runny noses are rare with Covid and ECDC can say 60% and both of them be correct.

It's very confusing information. My dd now has quite a dry cough but still has a congested nose with no temperature.

Nquartz, glittery
Based on 100000 tests a day and around 2000 positive cases.
99800 tested negative. But 1 percent of negatives, were give a false positive. So 998 of the positives were false.
Of the other 1002 tests that were actual positives, 300 were missed. So despite the difference in rate the false positives impact more people (and their contacts forced into self isolation wrongly)

@Treesofwood

Sendcheese and Ninja. Could be false positives. The false positive rate is very low, but when doing 100000 plus tests a day can still lead to 80 to 400 false positives. They have had several false positives in the Western Isles for example. I'm sure if they lived elsewhere, like Glasgow, would just have been accepted as Covid.

How do they know they were false positives, did they have a second test?

Yes

@Treesofwood No. 1% of positives are false positives.

So if 2000 a day are positive, up to 20 could be false.