Really confused about whether to order tests?

[OrangeSamphire]

There is a confirmed case of COVID-19 in my son’s bubble. We are about to fetch him from school and he has to self isolate for 14 days.

He has no symptoms but 10 days ago he had a weird rash that the GP said was eczema. He also had a sore throat. No temperature. No cough.

Me and my daughter have both had colds with runny noses, headache, tiredness and a very minor post nasal drip cough. No temperature. No loss of taste. No continuous cough.

Do we test? Do we all self isolate?

None of you need a test at this time as none of you have covid symptoms that require testing.
Son has to isolate for 14 days.
You and daughter don't need to isolate (unless anyone in household develops one of the main covid symptoms).

You only test if you have any of of the listed CURRENT symptoms.

No need to test without any of the three symptoms (cough, fever or loss of smell/taste) but carry on with the isolating.

The rash is a tricky one (I sympathise my dd is prone to viral rashes) but apart from ‘covid toes’ there isn’t a distinctive rash. I think you have to trust your GP on this one but do seek further advice or a second opinion if you’re concerned. I used to work for dermatologists and their ability to distinguish seemingly the same spotty red rashes from one another amazes me because to the lay person rashes are incredibly hard to distinguish. Even the professionals sometimes have to resort to elimination to diagnose (so if one medication doesn’t work it’s not that).

Keep an eye on them but at the moment it’s just a case of isolate and observe.

Forgot to add only your son needs to isolate.

Thank you. It's so confusing when other international bodies say the list of symptoms includes things we most definitely have. I've underlined the ones from the CDC symptom list.

So I guess that means my son's carers can't come to the house? And my daughter receives 'hospital education at home', so I guess she can't have that either? Even though she isn't isolating?

I'm not a stupid person, but I just can't figure out what we can and can't do. The rules don't actually seem to fit real circumstances!

I wouldn’t have anyone in the house if someone was isolating no. I would say that your sons carers won’t be able to come in but your daughters might depending on your setup so you need to speak to them both and see what their guidance tells them to do.

I agree that the UK’s guidance of symptoms seems out of step with other countries but we can only go by what we have been told here. The CDC is American so it’s unlikely that the support services you use will be using them for reference.

Sympathies, I am self isolating due to my teen. And yes, it is very inconvenient.

The NHS guidance on NHS site.

The Gov/NHS are not saying that you can't get other symptoms with Covid. They have taken the top 3 symptoms that are highly significant across all of the cases here and using these as a baseline for for testing and isolation purposes. If they listed all of the symptoms, I think tens of millions would be at home weekly and needing tests.

There must be so many cases being missed because the testing criteria is so narrow.

Well I’ve dug out all the arts and crafts stuff and ordered a box of wine.

ordered a box of wine

Chin chin