LFT for households if your child is at school or college

[Dorisdaydream2]

I have spoken to a few friends and none of them seem to be aware that if you have children who are back at school or college everyone else in the household is also entitled to twice weekly lateral
Flow testing.

Have I got this wrong?? If I am right are you doing it?

I’m not sure what is confusing about it to the poster who said it was confusing!

Secondary School pupils are doing LFT at school for the first 3. Then they will bring a box home. The ones you can order are for the families of school age children, parents and grandparents to do to ensure they do not have Covid and therefore pass it on to the children who will then pass it on in school.
I have a DS who is in Y11 so he will get tested at school. I also work in a school so I get tested there. I have ordered some tests for DH. I also have a DS2 who is in Y5 and although the tests are not specifically intended for primary children to do I will do him as well.

I picked up 2 boxes at the local testing centre. Not another person there. It was all extremely straightforward.

we are doing them, I orderd them online for dh. I'm doing them for work and the dd's are doing them at school.

Except dd1 is now self isolating because of close contact with someone who tested positive on a lf at school so I don't know what happens with her school lf's, if she finishes the 3 when she goes back or just starts the home ones.

And the person who tested positive then got a negative pcr, but they have to stay in self isolation. But it is what it is.

DD just did second LFT at home. Positive! Taken her for a drive in confirmatory test and she's currently holed up in her room. DH gutted he can't go for a walk now, and can't go to work tomorrow until we get a (hopefully) negative test result for her 🤞.

She was literally back at college 2 days so I really hope it's a false positive.

Somebody upthread mentioned their DCs had colds and had taken LFTs.

I thought LFTs are for asymptomatic testing?
But surely if you're positive regardless it picks up Covid? Why are they only suitable for those without symptoms?

@en0la

I'm aware but school haven't received the tests yet. Did you also know that the government expect the schools to report the results of all the LFTs done at home by all their pupils 🙄

School won't receive the tests for household. You need to either order them to be sent home or collect them from a local test site (by appointment). Do it through the .Gov site.

The government aren't asking schools to report results either. Students/parents are asked to log them online, not the schools.

Not reliable and costing the tax payer a fortune so why would you?

I know there may be regional variations, but HOW did those of you that collected them obtain the home tests? My council keep sending out tweets telling us they're available for family testing, but the link goes (via a council covid pages) to the general map of testing centres and no instructions whether to turn up, or order for pickup, only link for asymptomatic testing in person (for ppl in more risky jobs).

www.gov.uk/order-coronavirus-rapid-lateral-flow-tests

I don't think it's been very well publicised, we've had a brief email from the (primary) school saying we could do it if we wanted & giving us the link to the government info page. The email itself wasn't particularly encouraging of people to take part either.

I'm surprised there hasn't been a government advertising campaign on radio or Internet to let people know about this, unless there has and I haven't seen it.

It's almost as if the government decided to implement the testing knowing they mostly don't work and give false negatives as it looks like schools are safe and so can stay open. Of course they wouldn't do that would they?

This.

This BMJ study found the lfts picked up only 3 out of 63 positives. (estimated from 10% of the tested students who also did PCR and got positives after negative lfts) www.bmj.com/content/371/bmj.m4941

Whilst I usually agree with the sentiment that something is better than nothing, that's really only true if people don't do things like a) assume the negative tests definitely mean you're covid free and are less cautious as a result and b) don't use them in place of PCR testing when mildly symptomatic.

If the lfts are picking up many fewer positives in the school population than would be expected from community rates, it suggests there's a problem.

Did our first ones today, will do another mid week (daughter what’s her second school test on Monday) Son is too young to take them. We picked up 2 packs from a local test centre and ordered a third online. Will reorder before we do our fourth tests

Thank you @kimlo! I'm ordering some right now.

I used that link, stepped through the questions, and as I'm happy to collect, the last message I got was that I can just turn up at our local testing centre without a prior booking. Reposting my screenshot which might help others:

I posted yesterday that DD had +ve LFT, we had to go 20 miles to take her for a confirmatory test. That has come back negative this morning, and in time for DH to go to work, so relief all round. Thank goodness the positive LFT was at home and we had time to get the 2nd test, and not at college.
Poor thing spent all yesterday afternoon holed up in her room on her own thinking she had Covid whilst I was detol-ing everything

@SunInTheSkyYouKnowHowIFeel

I don't think it's been very well publicised, we've had a brief email from the (primary) school saying we could do it if we wanted & giving us the link to the government info page. The email itself wasn't particularly encouraging of people to take part either.

I'm surprised there hasn't been a government advertising campaign on radio or Internet to let people know about this, unless there has and I haven't seen it.

same here. I'm doing them but i don't think many others are. On a broader note I think pretty much anyone that works is eligible to get them now but it is indeed puzzling that the government isn't pushing this more.....suspect it not a coincidence that they are known to not be that reliable. What they don't want is people thinking they can do what they like because they get a negative, because false negatives are gong to be more of an issue than false positives I think

[quote kimlo]www.gov.uk/order-coronavirus-rapid-lateral-flow-tests[/quote]
Thank you! didn't realise this was for nurseries too, so I have now ordered some. Will be useful for when we are allowed to see groups outside again to know we are not spreading it to family.

There are two examples in this article of people who took lfts and they were negative then spread covid to their families because they were false negatives.

www.ft.com/content/419e682b-3092-4097-a668-26d263179a76

It also seems not all LFTs are the same. I'd quite happily rely on the Surescreen tests if what is written here is true. Not so Innova which appear to be quite inaccurate.

Anyway, looked at my tests and they're produced by Xiamen Biotime Biotechnology in China - apparently for Innova (I conclude these are the same as the Innova ones referred to). Apparently they're not meant to be used on asymptomatic people at all:

www.evaluate.com/vantage/articles/news/snippets/us-covid-19-test-authorisations-slow-uk-runs-trouble