CDC: Girl with nasal congestion as only symptoms passes on COVID-19 to 11 people

[bobbiester]

A new CDC report has found a 13-year old girl - whose only symptom was nasal congestion - transmitted the virus to 11 people during an extended family gathering...

www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6940e2.htm

Shows a few things including...

• Children and adolescents can serve as the source for COVID-19 outbreaks within families, even when their symptoms are mild (e.g. just nasal congestion / runny nose).

• Regardless of negative test results, persons should self-quarantine for 14 days after a known exposure

It's worrying. The symptoms of the virus go far beyond the three that the government keep peddling out.

My ds 5 had a sore throat and a stomach ache, my dd 7 had wheeziness and a runny nose, my DH had sneezing and wheezing, and my first symptoms were a sore throat, chest pressure and breathlessness. No cough, fever or loss of smell and taste?!

And those three official symptoms don't actually line up with the data coming in either. The testing criteria is much too narrow. We need much more regular routine testing. The current system does not go far enough.

The worry thing is in the UK - a child cannot officially get a COVID-19 test if they only have a runny nose. But the CDC report above clearly shows that a child with just this symptom can pass on COVID-19 to many others.

In UK schools right now kids are being sent in with what parents believe is "just a cold". Schools and the government are encouraging this - but we have no way of knowing if nasal congestion is "just a cold" without a test - and we can't get tests!!

As office air con and the cold outdoors give many a runny nose, if that became an official symptom the country would grind to a halt.

That's aside from "colds" and, in Spring, hayfever.