Confused about secondary testing

[bathsh3ba]

So we have received information from school about the testing (secondary). If anyone gets a positive result, they have to be collected and then isolate for 10 days. But it says you don't have to follow it up with a PCR test and I thought you did? And also it doesn't say if siblings would be sent home. Presumably the whole household would have to isolate?

I would always have the pcr as if that is negative everyone can go back.

Once you are doing LFTs at home, a positive needs confirming with a PCR test. At my school it does not need confirming on LFTs done at school. No idea why this should be the case, but that's what we've been told.

I presume this is being done to keep overall case numbers low on official data. It also helps the govt prove their ‘schools are safe’ mantra. There will be cases, but if they are only identified by lateral flow tests, there will be no official record. Nothing to see here, move along please, general public.

Yes, Janek is correct.
The original guidance was that all positive LFTs had to be confirmed by a PCR, then they didn't.....and now LFTs done at home do but done in school don't.
I presume there is some kind of assumption that the quality control for in school testing will be better than if people are doing their own, though on what basis that decision has been made, I have no idea. I've been a volunteer tester in school for several months now but a lot of the volunteers we've got coming in to help next week have never done it before - they'll be no more experienced than a parent doing their child's test at home. And ironically, if I get a positive result on a test I've done on a random child at school it's assumed to be accurate, but if I get a positive result on one of my own children at home it will need to be confirmed by PCR. Doesn't make a lot of sense to me, but those are indeed the rules.

You would be utterly bonkers not to follow it with a PCR test, the Porton Down / Oxford Uni report on PCR's said 0.4% or 1 in 250 of the tests was a false positive in community use, that is almost certainly higher than the rate in the community today (ONS said 1 in 230 ten days ago and R is still below 1) that means Porton Down reckon 50% of the positives today will not be due to covid.

Isolating everyone in the household for 10 days on that accuracy is madness, the more accurate PCR will release the household.

Now it seems very likely that Porton Down were wrong and the false positives aren't actually that high, (since the overall positive rate isn't that high) although they've not explained why, but even their best figure still leaves a 1 in 10 chance of a positive LFT test not being covid today, and even lower in areas where the prevalence is very low.

Don't isolate for 10 days unless you really need to, isolating for 10 days harms your health and takes you weeks to just get back as healthy as you were before.

I'm not sure what the arrangements for recording home testing will be Adirondack but since those do have to be confirmed by PCR there will be a record. And in school tests are all uploaded to the NHS database as part of the Test and Trace process so there will be a record of those too. It's not just a matter of the school informing the pupil, everything is also recorded centrally.
The plan is definitely not without faults but I don't think it's a device to hide positive cases.

Oh ok, I didn't know there was a difference between the in school and home tests. The information we have been sent so far is about the in-school tests. It sounds like school would not let them back for 10 days regardless. Presumably the other sibling in the school would also be sent home?

It is good to get a PCR to verify a positive LFT since they can give false positives etc. But if you then get a negative PCR will the school let your DC go back into school? I had the impression (just from MN though) that a positive LFT meant 2 weeks isolation even if the more-accurate PCR was negative?

www.theguardian.com/education/2021/mar/06/school-covid-tests-pupils-in-england-very-likely-to-get-false-positives?fbclid=IwAR2qj-TZa7alo9BWXkhYdVdiZNId1juf-KDoitoS9bBOTx6MYKKnKOEsN74

This has recently changed and you will still have to isolate even with a more accurate negative PCR test. Absolutely bonkers!

That Guardian article is very worrying.

Tens of thousands of false positives leading to 2 weeks home learning, even if it is shown to be wrong with a a PCR test.

Plus all the pupils who are deemed to be close contacts kept at home too.

Clearly a negative PCR should allow return to school.

The positive LFT should be a guide to get a proper PCR test, not trump a negative PCR test

We just had a thing through from school saying all senior school parents could have a free LFT once a week. Obviously if anyone tests positive then the whole family have to isolate. Given how inaccurate they are, why would anyone asymptomatic even bother? I said this on our PTA page and got my arse handed to me, but I won’t be doing it unless I have symptoms.

A relative of mine had a faint positive lateral flow test at the school where she works, and despite following it up with two negative PCR tests a few days apart she still had to isolate with her family and had calls from test and trace to make sure they were. It seems ridiculous.

but I won’t be doing it unless I have symptoms

The instructions for the home LFD tests say that they are NOT to be used for symptomatic testing.

So why do them then?

@Howshouldibehave

but I won’t be doing it unless I have symptoms

The instructions for the home LFD tests say that they are NOT to be used for symptomatic testing.

The actual instruction leaflet says the opposite,, ie that you can use them if symptomatic!

I won’t be putting my daughter through it. It’s inaccurate when a professional does it, she’s 11! Why on earth would we consent to our children putting swabs down the back of their throats with there being such a high chance of it coming back wrong and then being made to isolate again! Poor child has just been stuck indoors for the last 3 months anyway!

@Olivia333 there isn’t a high chance of getting a false positive, a false negative yes, but not the other way around, you ask your children to do it protect other children and teachers from catching it from them , it’s called social responsibility

The front page of the telegraph tomorrow says is causing false positives!

This bbc article explains how it can cause more harm than good. So I’m choosing to put my child first!
www.bbc.com/news/health-56285179

@Janek

Once you are doing LFTs at home, a positive needs confirming with a PCR test. At my school it does not need confirming on LFTs done at school. No idea why this should be the case, but that's what we've been told.

That's your school, it's not universal. None of the local schools are doing that, though I think they should.

The Telegraph are attempting to scaremonger I'd imagine. Nobody with any common sense would take anything printed in there seriously.

The Telegraph, BBC and The Guardian. Come on, how ridiculous!

@WitchesBritchesPumpkinPants Janek is right. Any school insisting on PCR test after positive LFD in a testing centre at a school is not following the PHE rules. They may have a small stock of the PCR tests now but when they run out they can't reorder.

@Olivia333 even at 3 in a 1000, that’s a 0.003 chance of a false positive result, or a the lower end , 0.001, I’m not sure how you are putting your child first TBH

That’s 1000’s of children all isolating needlessly