Should we start doing tests for everyone with cold symptoms now?

[PregnantGotCovid]

I've been doing twice weekly lateral flow tests as I'm an hcp.

My test came back positive even though I had no Coronavirus symptoms. On the morning of the test, I had slight cold symptoms (sore throat and nasal congestion). Some of my colleagues have had similar experiences.

If I hadn't had a lateral flow test, I would have had no idea I had Coronavirus.

So is it time now to expand the general public testing criteria?

P.s. 4 days later, I still only have cold symptoms. Has anyone else started with cold symptoms and not developed into anything worse?

I wish they would. I've tried to persuade my aunt to take a test. She has shivers and a cold, according to her, and a couple of paracetamol will do the trick.

She won't test as it's not one of the three 'official' symptoms.

I think she'll be infecting half of Asda tomorrow if it's Covid!

2 teachers at my school had sore throats and only got tested as a child in their class tested positive. They were too.

My mil had ‘a cold’ then lost her appetite and sense of smell-positive test.

The medical director of the group of hospitals where I live gives weekly video updates and on this weeks he urged people with any flu like symptoms to get tested.

YES!!!

So many of my patients started this way. I felt so irritated that people weren't doing this all autumn. Other countries don't have such a narrow testing criteria.

Recently had the same thing in our house. Started with cold symptoms (sore throat, runny nose) then a cough but never continuous. Tested positive that day. Anecdotally, I've heard a lot of people say this recently.

@PregnantGotCovid

I've been doing twice weekly lateral flow tests as I'm an hcp.

My test came back positive even though I had no Coronavirus symptoms. On the morning of the test, I had slight cold symptoms (sore throat and nasal congestion). Some of my colleagues have had similar experiences.

If I hadn't had a lateral flow test, I would have had no idea I had Coronavirus.

So is it time now to expand the general public testing criteria?

P.s. 4 days later, I still only have cold symptoms. Has anyone else started with cold symptoms and not developed into anything worse?

If people sign up for the Zoe covid app it will do exactly that. People can log their symptoms daily and it will ask them to have a test of it notices certain patterns of symptoms, not just the big three. Theres special provision for applying for the test on the NHS system.

Primary schools are going to start testing children and staff. Can you imagine teachers having to test a class of 4 and 5 year olds?!

I know a fever isn’t a cold symptom, I know you’re supposed to get a test if you have a fever. Loads of people think that as long as they can explain the fever it doesn’t need a test. Mine came back negative which has fortified the belief that you need to be lying on the floor wheezing before you get a test.

Yep. I had a runny nose, sneezing and felt sinusy. Checked the NHS chart which indicated a cold. Colleague tested positive so got a test and was positive too. Longer lasting effects have been fatigue and headaches.

@peonyjam

Recently had the same thing in our house. Started with cold symptoms (sore throat, runny nose) then a cough but never continuous. Tested positive that day. Anecdotally, I've heard a lot of people say this recently.

Did it get any worse or did it stay mild @peonyjam?

@LarsErickssong

The medical director of the group of hospitals where I live gives weekly video updates and on this weeks he urged people with any flu like symptoms to get tested.

Do you not have access to the lateral flow tests where you work?

As everyone seems to get different symptoms yes probably a good idea

@PregnantGotCovid

Luckily it has stayed mild! I hope it is the same for you. Honestly if it hadn't been for my partners positive test I would have thought I had a mild cold but with more fatigue. I really think they do need to update the symptoms list for tests because in normal times I would just carry on feeling like this.

@ConfusedcomMum

Yup this was my family's experience a month ago.

Did your symptoms stay mild?

@TheTeenageYears

Has the lateral flow test been followed up with a PCR test? I was reading an article earlier in the BMJ about how the lateral flow tests used for mass testing weren't suitable for the test to release programme because they weren't reliable enough.

As the BMJ article explains, false positives are very rare, only 0.5%. But yes, I did the pcr test as my employer requires it, and so I'm counted in the official statistics/test and trace.

The BMJ article says the rate of false is negatives is very high, around 1 in 4.

@LizzieSiddal

Interesting. I use the Zoe app and on Monday when I’d been sneezing all day and feeling a bit “urgh”, I put these symptoms into the app and I then got an email saying that whilst I don’t need to self isolate, would I get a test. I’ve just sent it off today so I’ll wait and see. Maybe they are doing a study to see if sneezing is an early symptom?

Yes they are trying to work out which symptoms are significant- I'm on ZOE too and have had three tests via them due to cold symptoms (July, Dec & Jan) all negative.

I've been saying this for months. I don't understand why it's not being picked up in the media when it's so obvious that the insistence on the three symptoms means that loads of people who have covid are walking around infecting other people because "its only a cold".

I use the Zoe app and have been asked to test 4 times since April/May for headache/sore throat/cold. Negative all four times but I feel that I'm doing my bit for research. Pretty sure I had it in March anyway.

I also know loads of people with a cough who haven't got tested because of thinking it has to be a dry rather than mucus cough or people they didn't think their cough was bad enough to be a "continuous" cough which no one really knows what that means anyway. I wonder how many of them were positive.

The three official symptoms thing is obviously far too limited, at this point.

MlL aged 73 has no cough, she thought she had a cold then 4 days later her sense of smell went.

Definitely. There are so many different symptoms, and people constantly starting threads on here saying they have cold symptoms or their kids have cold symptoms, should they go to work and school and they are always told yes, cold symptoms aren't covid symptoms, so people out there probably spreading it about to countless people because they think they just have a cold.

The Zoe app told me to get tested after I reported having an earache.
By the time they sent the email, the day after reporting the symptom, it had gone so I didn’t go and get tested

@PregnantGotCovid I don't work for the hospitals so no access to lateral flow tests, he was urging anyone living in the area to book a PCR test even if they didn't have one of the main 3 symptoms, despite this obviously being against government advice.

I also think diarrhoea, nausea and vomiting should be on the list

I had a positive test today. No fever, no cough but my early symptoms were sore eyes, headache and nasal congestion.
I tested because a household
Member was positive. I think it’s crazy the amount of people getting positive tests without presenting any of the main symptoms. This must be a factor in why it’s spreading - think how many people are feeling unwell but not testing or isolating because it doesn’t meet one of the three criteria to do so.