Woken up with a sore throat but not one of the main symptoms

[Mogtheforgetfulmum]

I'm a secondary teacher. We have had several positive cases, I only posted a couple of days ago that we weren't being told when students in our classes had tested positive. I've woken up this morning with a very noticeable sore throat which hurts when I swallow. You can also hear my chest sounds bad when I take a deep breath. I'm surprised to see that on the nhs app a sore throat isn't one of the 3 main symptoms, but the WHO states that 'The virus can cause a range of symptoms, from ranging from mild illness to pneumonia. Symptoms of the disease are fever, cough, sore throat and headaches'.

Basically my question is should I be ringing school, setting cover and isolating?? We are already so understaffed I don't want to look like a time waster. I'm also totally perplexed as to how I even managed to get a 'sore throat' in the first place. I've been wearing a mask in the corridors and sanitising my hands constantly.

**aarggh - peace of mind!

for all poorly teachers. Get well soon.

@FlippinNoah

I'm a teacher, my teaching assistant tested positive last week, class sent home. I had a tickly throat and sniffles this week, nothing major, I feel fine but booked a test for piece of mind. I got my positive result last night.

Hope you recover quickly.

I started with a sore throat on Tuesday, felt achy and unwell since but nothing drastic. I did a home test last night and sent it off today. Hoping it isn't COVID but after reading some of the replies on here I'm wondering now if it is as I feel very similar to how others have described.

My only symptom was a sore throat. Had a test and two days later I felt fine again. Test came back positive

A sore throat is a very common first symptom. I hope you are feeling better soon.

You did the right thing. You are in a work place which has had several known cases, so you could have picked it up. Plus, if you infect others with the same symptoms, they too will be testing, off work etc. I hope you feel better soon.

@PracticingPerson @ImAncient @AliciaWhiskers @Kidneybingo

Thank you for the kind comments. They've honestly made me feel quite emotional after such a hard first half term at school. Been feeling really rotten and a bit sorry for myself.

Got my test so fingers crossed it's the usual cold I'd be picking up around this time of year anyway.

Fingers crossed for you too.

OP if you have it, you will be okay. I've had it for ten days and I'd never have known. And my two year old (also confirmed) had a mild temp for less than 48 hours and has been eating and drinking normally and generally being a little maniac from not going out for our daily long walks.

I definitely describe it as feeling a bit odd and while cooking tonight I realised I couldn't smell a thing! so weird. My eyes didn't even water when I cut up an onion).

But we are all fine. Symptoms in our household were mild temp (DD only) and for me and DH: sore throat, occasional irritated cough, stomach upset, lightheadedness/wooziness, slight tight chest. Lasted a couple of days.

Keep us posted. If you do have it don't panic please. You're in good company

I didn't think you could have a test without one of the main symptoms?
When my ds had a sore throat school said to go in

The symptom list makes me angry. It's utter bollocks, and I'm sure they know it.
My first covid symptoms were a sore throat, hoarseness, shivering and cold, the runs and extreme tiredness.

Kings university c19 app has found 6 groups of symptoms, from the positive cases amongst their 4.5million app users.

Can anyone say exactly what other countries use as testing criteria?
It would be hard to teat every cold, headache , sore throat i get that as with being winter its a ongoing thing
The day my son had a sore throat i was unsure but school said he could go in , his sore throat lasted a day but he was otherwise fine , he did havei a cold week before and again went in , although i kept him off couple days due to his sneezing
But half his friendship grouo have had colds / sore throats and some having a few days off , only one that we know had test as also had temp and was negative
But who knows maybe they have all had it
Beginning march i had briefest of temp but then sore throat and cold that i just couldn't shift, but then criteria was only if been to china etc but i felt awful for couple weeks and very tired and few weeks before that dh and both ds were all just off colour a bit and just felt really tired and boys had sore throats
So maybe we had it ?
But its a tough one as you logistically couldn't test for everything
I just kept ds off first day or so to make sure no further symptoms developed

@timeforanewstart I think Germany test for any cold/flu like symptoms.

PP are right in that we limit the symptoms to limit pressure on testing capacity

DD 17 and at sixth form came down with a sore throat on Tuesday which has developed into a horrible sinusy, fluey bug and now a really fruity cough.

We had a home test done yesterday which was posted back same day. There are cases of it in her school. Will update when we get her result

Australia will test for any cold or flu symptoms. I fact the authorities are often begging more people to get tested!

Over winter cold and flu numbers were down massively because of Covid measures. I still go to the office full time and haven’t had a virus of any kind since February. Anyone sick is told to go home immediately. From what I read on Mumsnet the soldier on with cold symptoms for workers and students attitude is still pretty common.

In Australia, in our region in NSW - any student or teacher with even cold and flu symptoms who turn up to school are sent home. We have been instructed not to send kids to school should they show symptoms including sore throats, coughs, sniffles, headaches, and fevers, and they cannot return without a negative test. And this is in an area currently without any Covid cases.
I think I prefer this method.

Well this makes much more sense.

The UK response has been rather counter productive

If I'd not been contacted directly by the person who infected me (story mentioned before but I looked after her baby for an hour in my home) I'd never have thought my symptoms were covid and I'd have kept plans to work that weekend, potentially infecting colleague's and students at the studio I teach at, and would have also seen one other friend for a play date.

Would also have stuck to original move house date, potentially affecting our moving company as well as my mum who was due to look after our child (me, DH and DD all caught covid from this one situation although we don't know really if I got it first and passed it on - although that's what we assume otherwise I have one hell of a superspreader friend).

Waiting to find out if my DH's colleague has caught it and a few friends he saw out before we got the news about my friend.

Moral of the story? Stay home if you have cold symptoms as it's very, very likely to be covid. We had cold symptoms - NOT the 'main three' - and IMO the country would 'grind to a halt' if people keep going out not realising they could be infectious, it's not going to grind to a halt if you stay home and get tested.

*colleagues (autocorrect )

And I'm not scaremongering as if you do get it it's extremely likely you will 'just' have cold symptoms and feel off for a few days.

And this is coming from someone who has been so worried about the virus that I still wipe down shopping deliveries and still haven't sent my 2 year old back to childcare.

@Mumisnotmyonlyname 100% agree with you!

In terms of severity of symptoms, we now have complete loss of smell so that's obvious most 'severe' (funny that I only realised this when cooking garlic and not smelling a thing!) - however this didn't happen until yesterday, 10 days post exposure to covid and almost a week since any kind of symptoms started - but the most bothersome has been stomach upsets, especially for my DH (didn't affect my DD this way at all). That was one of our first symptoms too.

Hi OP, my DH got tested last week and I berated him as he didn't have the 3 classic symptoms. I thought he had a cold, was over-reacting and wasting NHS resources. Imagine our surprise when it came back positive!!

His friends that he met last week (in a Covid secure place) have now also tested positive.

I have a headache and sore throat, also positive.

I am angry, as the website puts you off having a test if you don't have the 3 symptoms. If it wasn't for DH lying on the website, he and people he came into contact with would have still be going around unknowingly spreading it.

This whole thing is a shambles!!!!

Ffs, it's shocking how many people are saying they would go to work/send kids to school with respiratory symptoms. This is why we are in the situation we are in. If you are ill, stay home. No one wants your virus this year, even if it isn't COVID!

If everyone stayed home whilst ill, even for normal colds, it would help to prevent track and trace becoming overwhelmed as there would be fewer people ill in general to query COVID.

OP, you've done the right thing of course. Feel better.

@Whatshouldicallme

Ffs, it's shocking how many people are saying they would go to work/send kids to school with respiratory symptoms. This is why we are in the situation we are in. If you are ill, stay home. No one wants your virus this year, even if it isn't COVID!

If everyone stayed home whilst ill, even for normal colds, it would help to prevent track and trace becoming overwhelmed as there would be fewer people ill in general to query COVID.

OP, you've done the right thing of course. Feel better.

Yes, in an ideal world (or anywhere other than the uk) that would likely be possible. Not everyone can afford to stay home for a cold, people face disciplinaries for being off ill, wage loss, and 3 disciplinaries and job loss.

The uk needs an overhaul from the top down.