Covid/cold, test?

[Arabiannightss]

DC back at school this week, both have developed a cough and snotty nose, sore throats & one a temp in the evenings.
Usually I would think fine just a bad cold but the younger ones cough sounds terrible and I’m worried they won’t be allowed into school next week.
Do you think it’s worth trying to get a test? (If I can actually get one that is)

Yes.

With a cough and temperature, then yes test.

Which is a bugger, as getting tested is so tortuous right now.

I was in two minds as they are both full of snot.
Older dc doesn’t have a temp it’s just the youngest one but he gets a temp if he even so much as gets a whiff of a germ (not unusual for him to have temps of 41degrees)

both have a cough that's enough right there to mean you isolate the household and get a test. They absolutely should not be in school but that's not about being allowed, it's about following the government advice.

The fact a child usually coughs or usually gets a temp is irrelevant, it doesn't make this child any more or less likely to have covid vs a cold.

They need a test as they have one of the test symptoms.

They should not go to school until a negative result or 14 days have passed.

Getting a test is exactly what we had to under similar circumstances. His cough is very mucusy, but the spike in temperature (at night) made up my mind for me. We have been very lucky in getting a test today!

Honestly, I do empathise with you, it's such headache having to do all this. I wouldn't want my son's teachers to fear my son, so testing was the right thing. Very quick and easy, once we battled to get one!

I’m not averse to getting the test or isolating at all, I don’t want us to be a danger to anyone else, I was more thinking along the lines of not wanting to up a space for a test unnecessarily.
And I just meant that temps are normal for the younger one so I wasn’t counting that as a ‘symptom’ as such, the cough was the bit I was worried about but was unsure if a cough alone along with a cold would class as a need for a test.
Thank you all for the advice, about to try and book 🤞

You test if they have any ONE or more of: high temperature; new continuous cough (coughing a lot for more than 1 hour, or 3 or more coughing episodes in 24 hours, or coughing more than usual); or a loss of or change in taste and/or smell. What you think is causing the cough is of no interest whatsoever to the school, only what they have been told not to let children come to school with, as that is what Government advised them - even though a sore throat, headache, rash, loss of appetite, fatigue and upset stomach are probably more common symptoms of covid 19 in children than a cough.

I'm glad you're testing.

Not to be unkind but this: And I just meant that temps are normal for the younger one so I wasn’t counting that as a ‘symptom makes absolutely no sense.

The whole problem with covid is it looks like a normal cold for many.

So a temperature like any other time could be a cold or could be covid.