"She's fine, we've done a lateral flow"

[Happymchappy]

I just wondered if anyone else is coming across this more and more amongst parents at school. The vast majority of people I chat to seem to be relying heavily on lateral flows these days - less so PCRs for close contacts, coughs etc.
I'm just intrigued how common this is more widely?
I'm sure if a child was visibly ill with symptoms the school would send them home and they'd get a PCR then - I've come across it more in social interactions like playdates etc.

My family and I have taken 18 pcrs in the last month. 1 for a cough and 17 for close contacts.

All have been back within 30 hours, one lot of 3 had an issue - 2 after 48 hours and 1 after 72 hours.

I think moaning that getting pcrs is too stressful is being a bit crap. You don't have to isolate whilst waiting for the result either for close contacts.

I've just done a 1.5 hour round trip to get my DD5 a PCR only to find out the roads are flooded and I can't access the testing Centre. No phone call to cancel the appointment!! Complete waste of time.

Her LF was negative this morning but she has a horrible cough so I've rebooked a 2nd PCR this afternoon, I'm sure she's negative but I'd look like a dick if didn't get her a PCR. It's all wearing a bit thin now though and I can sometimes understand why people are tempted with just using LF

PCRs take ages to come back here. Took DC as a precaution last week due to a cough and thought school might send home if we sent them in like that. Ended up missing almost a week of school waiting for what turned out to be a negative result. If they came back same day, I’d be tempted to do them again. As it is, less likely to do so now.

I agree with pp saying that the list of symptoms for a PCR test needs to be updated. A few people I know who had a positive test recently haven't had any of the three big symptoms. There have been sore throats, cold symptoms and headaches, leading to people doing an LFT, finding it was positive, then going for a PCR for confirmation. It's a joke.

Our school is telling us to test kids if they have one of the 3 classic symptoms. The local authority says you should go for a walk in PCR test if you have the wider symptoms. I’ve had one child or another off the whole week waiting for test results (cough, that isn’t new and wasn’t Covid but they were sent home to test). Meanwhile for cold, headache, nausea, sore tummy, the most common symptoms in kids: come on in!

@Marelle

They fit through standard letter boxes no issue. Well if you are only doing LFT and not isolating - you could order a PCR test and not bother isolating but at least you would have done the correct test so if positive would know at some stage.

Day 1 - DD2 wider symptoms, LFT positive, all others negative, whole household PCR test. I develop symptoms in the evening.

Day 2 - DD2 & DD3 PCR results positive, all others negative. DD3 & DD1 get symptoms and DD2's symptoms become 'classic'. LFTs negative for other family members.

Day 2 lunchtime - I repeat LFT - positive. Repeat PCR tests for DD1 & me.

Day 3 - PCR results- mine is positive, DD1's negative.

Day 4 - DH gets symptoms. Repeat PCR for him and 3rd PCR for DD1 (still symptomatic).

Day 5 - Positive results for DH and DD1.

My worry is that people are getting a negative initial PCR, then thinking 'oh it's a different virus...' when it just hasn't had enough time to be picked up by a PCR.

You do remember that there are other illnesses and virus that exist too right? Not every slight niggle is Covid fgs!
Plus going to go against the grain here especially for all the hysterics who have themselves convinced they will die the moment they contract it… if they have Covid and they only have a headache and feel a bit off I’d say that’s great personally! They’ve had it and coped fine and now have some natural immunity before a vaccine even,ideal scenario really 👍

I know a school that takes lateral flows as sufficient for being in school even if they do have symptoms 🤷

Basically they know that parents won't bother to take kids for a PCR so if school insisted on it they'd be off for ten days every time they had a cough.

We have a choice of an hour round trip by car, needing time off work, for a PCR, or a home one. Last time we did a home one for a close contact, about three weeks ago, we ordered it on Sunday having been notified of a contact which took place the previous Thursday, it arrived Monday but we were all at work/school till too late to do it and post it that day (have to post an hour before the time it says on the pillar box). So it was done and posted on Tuesday, didn't get results till Thursday. So it was the best part of a week after the contact by the time we got the results. In the meantime we relied on LFTs, what else were we meant to do?

People are relying on Lfts because the government has been totally useless at updating the symptoms that mean you can get a pcr test. Coughs obv should be a pcr but “headache and feel like crap” doesn’t,

Nobody checks your symptoms, you can just say you have a cough and get a PCR test.
Easier to blame the govt though.

@Marelle

You can order one online from the same site you book the drive through ones So I have to isolate for 24h until the test arrives. Assuming the postman can fit it through the letter box. Then I have to trail all the way to the postbox. Then wait another 2-3 days for a result, and probably have to isolate during that time too. It’s just not feasible. I have LFTs in the cupboard and can use them and get a result right now.

The test my son ordered through the post was faulty too. The security seal was missing. The one my husband ordered arrived and the fluid had leaked all over the box!

As someone else said if someone got a test for every single symptom their would be a shortage of tests. As far as I seen it is still get a test if you have a cough,fever or loss of taste and smell? When we all had covid ( my sister in law knowingly came round to our house knowing she had been next to someone who had tested positive and didn’t tell us, she had symptoms too and said nothing because she didn’t want to “ruin” her day ) after her kissing my son all over his face the next day he started coughing, she texted me the next day saying she had tested on a lft because she had symptoms and it came up positive so as I had a few spare lft I did one on my son and it came up positive immediately, I also did a pcr test to confirm it. A few days later my daughter fell ill ( obviously knowing it was covid because of my son and sister in law) she was feeling sick, coughing temp and I did a lft on her which came up with 2 very dark lines positive immediately. I started off with the symptoms, fever, headache, cough, completely lost my smell and taste and same thing, did a lft and immediately it came up as a very strong positive with 2 dark lines. I’ve even heard you shouldn’t use them with symptoms but we all had covid and the lft tests were coming up as very strong positives before the test had even finished developing. All was confirmed with positive pcr. I am aware though that a lot of people test negative with them.

I have a new-found respect for the lateral flow tests after they picked up my DD's COVID infection before she was symptomatic. Especially as we live in the area with the duff lab results, her first drive-through PCR was negative and the postal PCR a day or so later was positive.

DD had (IMO) a variant that was like a cold, and at the time we went for the first PCR she had none of the symptoms that would have qualified for a test apart from the positive lateral flow test. The cough took a day or two to come on (and then really hung around!).

We did get texts advising us to repeat our PCR tests about a week after we'd had them, they didn't seem to have matched up DD's second positive test in the rush to contact everyone who'd been recently tested through the now-suspended lab.

Partly due to the PCR tests being wrong, the infection rate in our area has risen by over 600 per cent in the last week. We are told that the PCR is the gold standard and I can see why people would have gone back to work/school/out and about having got a (false) negative. So as well as the increase in positive cases with the correct test, there have been infectious people spreading it around for weeks now without knowing. I will still be doing LFTs.

Obv if you have 1 of 3 main symptoms- should still get a PCR

Kids present with headaches, and sore tummies.

Young children’s rent required to do a LFT twice a week.

@SeenYourArse

You do remember that there are other illnesses and virus that exist too right? Not every slight niggle is Covid fgs! Plus going to go against the grain here especially for all the hysterics who have themselves convinced they will die the moment they contract it… if they have Covid and they only have a headache and feel a bit off I’d say that’s great personally! They’ve had it and coped fine and now have some natural immunity before a vaccine even,ideal scenario really 👍

You've missed the point spectacularly.

It's not "you've got it but feel ok so it's all fine", it's "you've got it so need to take every measure possible to not spread it around because it might kill the next person you spread it to". And yes, that counts for things like Flu as well, and there's no reason we should be spreading that around carelessly either.

I had a cold last week, went to work (no WFH option) wearing a mask to limit the spread to other coworkers, it's not rocket science.

@Marelle You don't need to isolate whilst waiting for a PCR result unless you have one of the 3 main symptoms, or have already done a positive LFT.

@Dancerinthedark01 You won't come into contact with anyone at a test centre. They poke the test kit through a gap in your car window and take it back off you the same way! Or you can order postal PCR tests and carry on as normal unless you get symptoms or test positive on an LFT.

Having said that, LFTs really do work to pick up asymptomatic and early cases, and can be a useful tool to help reassure you with common cold symptoms and tell you whether it would be a good idea to isolate whilst waiting for a PCR.

My DS tested positive on a routine school LFT two whole days before he developed symptoms. If we hadn't done the LFT he would have been merrily spreading Covid around his school for two days!

Actually lateral flow tests are pretty accurate:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-58899612

You don't need to isolate whilst waiting for a PCR result unless you have one of the 3 main symptoms, or have already done a positive LFT.

This depends on where you are in the UK.

My DS1 adult tests frequently for work and had cold symptoms testing negative with Lft and because asthmatic and wheezy,short of breath he phoned GP surgery. Told he would be rung back in the afternoon. GP phoned him half an hour later am and gave him antibiotics and steroids and advised although all cold symptoms and asthma to go for a PCR as a precaution as son was feeling exhausted( but he often does because chronic asthmatic) and because of the variants. It came back positive. Thankfully after a few weeks he is more or less over it.

Out of all my children he was the one I worried about most with Covid last year. Thankfully he had been able to have both vaccines which I think has helped tremendously.

So you may have Lft negatives but still have Covid.

I’m in Austria; we have free home pcr tests here (up to 8 per person per week) so we all use them the day before we might be meeting up with others.

Kids at school have to do at least two a week; this means they’re weeding out cases before symptoms show and stopping the chain of transmission. Also 12+ have been getting vaccinated since the summer.

There been one positive pcr test at the school (600 pupils) since term began, and no further transmission. I’m gobsmacked at seeing how it’s still spreading in the UK.

*I’m in Austria; we have free home pcr tests here (up to 8 per person per week) so we all use them the day before we might be meeting up with others.

Kids at school have to do at least two a week; this means they’re weeding out cases before symptoms show and stopping the chain of transmission. Also 12+ have been getting vaccinated since the summer.*

This is a perfect example of how our government is failing us.

When you test positive, track and trace ask about lots of symptoms. They know that nausea, sore throat, vomiting, diarrhoea, aches, headache, etc., are all symptoms of Covid. They just haven't updated the PCR page.

@emmathedilemma

I've just had this conversation with a friend by text who says they're fine (despite a headache and feeling like crap) because their LFT 3 days ago was negative! 18 months and people still haven't got it!

You do realise that there are some dreadful colds and other bugs out there that leave people with headaches and feeling like crap....

And I say that as someone currently sat at home with Covid.

Our school, all pupils do LFTs on Wednesdays and weekends. Results are submitted online. They do supervised handwashing four times a day. They also wear masks on school buses and in classrooms.

Anyone not willing to comply works from home with a video link to the class room. As of yesterday we have zero cases.

So yes, I'm happy with LFTs as part of wider measures.