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Original poster

Twice weekly lateral flow tests for households of school pupils

305 replies

SingANewSongChickenTikka · 28/02/2021 08:45

This seems a brilliant step forward, twice weekly lateral flow tests for households and bubbles of school staff and school pupils. Posted or ‘click and collect’. Yes the lateral flow tests have their limitations, but it still should help I think.

www.gov.uk/guidance/rapid-lateral-flow-testing-for-households-and-bubbles-of-school-pupils-and-staff

OP posts:
Mumdiva99 · 28/02/2021 14:00

I'll be ordering and testing. If it helps keep my primary school kids in school for longer by picking up asymptomatic covid in the community (and therefore helping to stop the spread to teachers) then I can't see a downside.

KettleWentBang · 28/02/2021 14:43

No. I've known of at least 7 people who felt rough and they didn't pick it up. Did the other test and positive. 5 out of those 7 worked in a hospital. Where they were told as the lft was negative to continue to work. So they did for a few days. Felt worse. Booked a test and positive. Therefore spreading to many others no doubt.

I won't be doing it

BungleandGeorge · 28/02/2021 15:02

I’m unclear of the benefit if parents have been fully vaccinated. For primary it’s presuming that infection is spreading from the adults to the children. I actually can’t work out why they haven’t just made it optional for primary kids themselves. Sign up test if you want to.

MrsHerculePoirot · 28/02/2021 15:54

@WrongKindOfFace I don't think the collection map works yet as it is only from tomorrow possibly? The one offering testing works for me.... I know that makes it sound like I think they are competent here, so of course it might just not work!

MrsHerculePoirot · 28/02/2021 15:56

@BungleandGeorge

I’m unclear of the benefit if parents have been fully vaccinated. For primary it’s presuming that infection is spreading from the adults to the children. I actually can’t work out why they haven’t just made it optional for primary kids themselves. Sign up test if you want to.
Presumbably because the very large majority of parents, and school staff for that matter, HAVEN'T been vaccinated. I suspect this will continue until Easter when they've used up most of their test they are trying to get rid of and then we'll see what happens then... if loads left they'll probably continue it, if next to none left they'll say it's no longer necessary is my personal guess.
ChameleonClara · 28/02/2021 16:06

@BungleandGeorge

I’m unclear of the benefit if parents have been fully vaccinated. For primary it’s presuming that infection is spreading from the adults to the children. I actually can’t work out why they haven’t just made it optional for primary kids themselves. Sign up test if you want to.
Most parents haven't been vaccinated yet, but anyway - vaccination prevents about two-thirds of transmission, this means that there will still be spread from, to and between vaccinated people, just at a significantly lower rate.
TiddleTaddleTat · 28/02/2021 16:11

Looks like it's just secondary school and college pupils ?

ChameleonClara · 28/02/2021 16:17

@TiddleTaddleTat

Looks like it's just secondary school and college pupils ?
They will presumably be keen to uphold the myth that primary children neither catch it nor spread it, I really wouldn;t have thought the government would want parents to know.
Mumdiva99 · 28/02/2021 16:21

@TiddleTaddleTat

Looks like it's just secondary school and college pupils ?
It's for primary school parents too.

Web booking opens on 1st March but I think you.can book tests in the right type of testing centre from 8th March.

tsmainsqueeze · 28/02/2021 16:42

There will be so many people who won't do these tests if results means losing out on pay .
Its ok taking a moral high ground if you don't have to worry about less income for a month or so , but some are skint .
The government should feel ashamed how difficult they have made it to claim the payments they promised in these situations .
My income has suffered over the last year but we have coped and have been warm and fed , i dread to think how some families are suffering.
I don't think there will be the take up of these tests that they would like .

BungleandGeorge · 28/02/2021 16:55

@ChameleonClara household contacts are roughly 20 % transmission without vaccination, if vaccination is 95% effective and viral load is usually low if infected despite vaccination and thus harder to pick up on LFT. Testing me instead of my kid makes no practical sense really!

SpringisSpinning · 28/02/2021 17:00

It all helps doesn't it, it's absolutely better than absolutely nothing.

They just need to be used with the caveat, they don't replace pcr tests, they are not actuate..

MrsHerculePoirot · 28/02/2021 17:07

@TiddleTaddleTat

Looks like it's just secondary school and college pupils ?
Look back and you can see the link to the document. In summary:

All school staff and secondary-age pupils will receive tests through school if the opt to participate.

All household members of all school staff and all primary and secondary pupils are eligible to take twice weekly tests if they wish. If they wish to the document lists the ways in which they can access these tests.

In all cases the testing is optional.

TiddleTaddleTat · 28/02/2021 18:09

Great yes primary school kids too. Yes this is better than nothing. Although LF tests are really unreliable so I wouldn't be reassured by a negative result.

MrsHerculePoirot · 28/02/2021 18:25

@TiddleTaddleTat

Sorry I can see what I wrote wasn’t clear. Primary pupils are not being offered tests. Households of primary pupils are.

WrongKindOfFace · 01/03/2021 07:31

[quote MrsHerculePoirot]@WrongKindOfFace I don't think the collection map works yet as it is only from tomorrow possibly? The one offering testing works for me.... I know that makes it sound like I think they are competent here, so of course it might just not work![/quote]
It’s still not working. Nor is the online ordering. Guess we need to wait for someone to start work and press the right button.

Arcadia · 01/03/2021 10:03

Where will we order the tests?

Frazzled2207 · 01/03/2021 10:26

on the link at the top of the thread. not working yet.

saffire · 01/03/2021 10:33

They are so inaccurate that I'm not going to do them. Of course if I had symptoms or dd does, or there's been a known contact then I'll be tested properly which is more likely to give a true result.
People are not going to do them properly which will give them a negative and a false sense of security.

OrangeBananaFish · 01/03/2021 11:22

on the link at the top of the thread. not working yet

I've been checking all morning and was worried I was in the wrong place. Hope we can get on soon (and that a sudden influx doesn't crash the site)

QuidditchQueen · 01/03/2021 11:48

The false positive rate is worrying - 0.05% which could be up to 1/200 people. Given secondary schools with say 2000+ pupils 200+ staff and multiply it by the households and that’s potentially a chaotic situation with a lot of people isolating unnecessarily.
False negatives less of a problem as those people will have low transmissibility.
I am a secondary teacher and given the optional nature of the test and the huge downside of a false positive I am hoping lots of parents will opt out.

Forestdweller11 · 01/03/2021 11:53

@QuidditchQueen

The false positive rate is worrying - 0.05% which could be up to 1/200 people. Given secondary schools with say 2000+ pupils 200+ staff and multiply it by the households and that’s potentially a chaotic situation with a lot of people isolating unnecessarily. False negatives less of a problem as those people will have low transmissibility. I am a secondary teacher and given the optional nature of the test and the huge downside of a false positive I am hoping lots of parents will opt out.
What?!!!

I do not understand your reasoning. You'd prefer to have asymptomatic people wandering about?. From the people at companies/schools I know false positives are not an issue.

QuidditchQueen · 01/03/2021 12:00

The reasoning is that with that level of false positives, testing asymptomatic people will lead to chaotic disruption die to unnecessary isolations!
Asymptomatic people giving false negatives are no danger to others.

Whatever9999 · 01/03/2021 13:22

I was asked to test the ordering system out at the weekend. Wasn't sure that I would take the tests, but I decided to.
Only ordered either Saturday night or Sunday morning (can't remember which) and they came in the post today. They really are easy to use, if a bit uncomfortable, like the old fashioned pregnancy tests really. And I can now tell the very few people I'm in contact with that I am not only vaccinated but have recently had a negative test

herecomesthsun · 01/03/2021 13:26

@QuidditchQueen

The false positive rate is worrying - 0.05% which could be up to 1/200 people. Given secondary schools with say 2000+ pupils 200+ staff and multiply it by the households and that’s potentially a chaotic situation with a lot of people isolating unnecessarily. False negatives less of a problem as those people will have low transmissibility. I am a secondary teacher and given the optional nature of the test and the huge downside of a false positive I am hoping lots of parents will opt out.
I'd say the opposite, the false negatives are the problem, as they can still carry infection, and by the time it gets picked up, there could be spread though the school.