Negative test but not allowed back to school

[ExclamationPerfume]

My Dd was sent home from school as someone in her class was found to have Coronavirus. She was told to isolate for 14 days.

She then developed a cough. She has had a test come back as negative. I called the school to see if she could return on day 12 of isolation but they won't let her back until day 14. Is that correct?

She's in her last year and already missed so much school.

I think it is. If you are a contact of someone you need to isolate the full 14 days , negative test or not. Because I think the theory being that you could develop symptoms at any point in that time, even after you'd had a negative

Yes school is correct

Yes its correct. They need to complete the 14 day isolation from the original contact with the positive case

Yes, completely correct.

Yes, if you have a positive test and are feeling better you can go back after 10 days.

Thanks. The confusing thing is the child who had the virus wasn't in on the day the school are quoting. My Dd and her friends last saw her in class on Monday 5th but school are saying she was in Wednesday 7th.

Yes that's correct. The virus can be incubating in your body for upto 14 days before you develop symptoms or have a positive test result. That's why everyone needs to isolate for 14 days.

If she's on day 12 and negative then she is very likely to be fine but she must wait the full 14 days to be sure.

It’s the period of time where the virus could manifest symptoms. So even if you test negative on day 3 or day 10, you still need to isolate for the full 14 days.

If you look up ‘incubation period covid’ it explains it better than I just did

Are they counting it from the day she got her test result? Which is also wrong. It should be counted from last contact not the day of the result

I think they are counting it from the test date. The girl herself text the whole group to let them know before the school even let us know.

I just worry this could keep happening. She can't afford to lose so much time off school.

That's my worry too. My daughter is year 13 and currently self isolating due to contact with a friend who then tested positive. We are counting it from her last contact with the friend and not the date of the friend's test.

@vjg13 Yes year 13 here too. The school won't budge on the date.

Maybe she isn't the one they are isolating for, there could have been another case?

Possibly but it's only a small class and they all know each other well.

They would have taken advice from Public Health England on the dates.

I will also point out that if they are isolating the whole class (my school has 2 classes out at the moment) then her classes won’t be running! The school wouldn’t have one child back and needing to be supervised while the rest of the class is working from home.

Oh apologies, you say she is in Y13 so presumably there are some missing from each of her lessons (except presumably for one subject that they are all isolating from as you say the “class” was sent home)

As it's Saturday now, the next two days are weekend anyhow, so she won't be missing anything in the remaining 48 hours

My daughter's A level lessons are on teams for those self isolating or off so the school is trying. Can you find something official from PH England to send to school as to how the days should be counted?

@ExclamationPerfume

Thanks. The confusing thing is the child who had the virus wasn't in on the day the school are quoting. My Dd and her friends last saw her in class on Monday 5th but school are saying she was in Wednesday 7th.

They probably mean the girl got the positive result on the 7th, then they have to work back 48 hours and so people who saw her on the 5th will need to isolate.

Yes but they should be isolating for 14 days from contact, not the test result, which is what the OP is querying

In our class there are three cases, so whole class is off. Classrooms are small, the date has changed, it’s last contact not test date

It should be 14 days from when the girl first got symptoms/when your child had contact with her, whichever is soonest.

School have got it wrong if your child last had contact on 5th. Isolation should end on 19th.

Dd is in year 12 - the whole of her 6th form have just had to self isolate as a year 13 tested positive ( small common room and canteen so it's a whole 6th form bubble) they were sent home on a Tuesday and are back at school Monday, letter said they were to isolate until yesterday as Friday was the last day they had contact with positive child.