No contact from Test and Trace?

blackwych · 2021-11-22T13:45:15+00:00

One of the children in the class I teach has Covid (confirmed with PCR I believe) and literally no one official, not the school, not Test and Trace, have got in contact to inform me of this. I first heard of it from one of the other kids, then heard more about it through the school grapevine. Surely her parents would have been asked to give contact details to Test and Trace and amongst the most easily identifiable contacts would be her actual teachers?

AnnoyedByAlfieBear · 22/11/2021 14:09

I believe that the school takes the place or test and trace in this situation and so it relies on the parents officially informing the school.

milkysmum · 22/11/2021 14:16

Test and trace no longer ask for details of close contacts outside of someone's household. My son has covid at present and when test and trace rang me they just asked for the details of who lived at home which is me and his his sister ( neither of us have to isolate- we just had to do a PCR as precaution). They did ask which school he went to but they do not contact the school. I inform school and school.

Original poster

blackwych · 22/11/2021 14:21

I believe that the school takes the place or test and trace in this situation and so it relies on the parents officially informing the school.

I don't think this is the case any more as my son's school has told parents that the school isn't involved in tracing contacts now. I don't see why a school wouldn't tell their own staff though.

OP posts:

Original poster

blackwych · 22/11/2021 14:27

Test and trace no longer ask for details of close contacts outside of someone's household.

Sounds like this must be the case. Also when I was looking at guidance on the UK gov website it seemed to only be talking about household contacts. Why are they no longer interested in close contacts in places outside of home? - e.g. 7-8 hours breathing the same air in a classroom.

OP posts:

DistrictCommissioner · 22/11/2021 14:30

When my DC had a positive test in mid October, T&T did ask for details of everyone she had been less than 2m away for more than 15 mins & seemed to think I would be able to give details of all 35 I her classmates - obviously I couldn’t, so they took the school name. The implication was they would get in touch with the school, but school took no action so not really sure what is/isn’t supposed to happen. I had told the school anyway, and DC case was one of about 7 or 8 in her class so they were fully aware.

Charliealphatangorara · 22/11/2021 14:30

Test and trace ask for personal mobile numbers of the children's teachers (and all their friends). When the parent tells them they don't have this info but can provide the school phone number, they are told they do not accept phone numbers of organisations, so no contact can be made by t and t.

Mumdiva99 · 22/11/2021 14:31

I had this just yesterday....the T&T asked if my daughter had been going to school - yes - do I know her contacts - no and that was the end of that....Schools are no longer expected to act as TandT so no one is told.....
Although someone suggested to me as schools should already be doing regular LFTs then cases should be picked up....also as no one really has to self isolate now...and no one under 18....then what is the point of them taking all the details? If it was a primary school where the kids are in class all day with the teacher I would hope the teacher is told by the admin team.

Smurf123 · 22/11/2021 14:34

@blackwych because didn't you know teachers are immune to covid oh and it doesn't spread in our classrooms.
Also a teacher in early years but if we don't live with the positive person test and trace won't contact us. At least in my school or principal makes us aware and encourages we get a pcr test.
My sons school also inform all parents of a confirmed positive case because of the amount of spreading cases and ask for a negative pcr result to return to school though legally they can't insist.

Winterrain7 · 22/11/2021 14:38

When my dd had covid and track and trace rang me they asked what school she went to I then asked if they contact the close contacts and they said no they notify the school and the school will then see who is a close contact an go from there. I only had 1 parents phone number so I text her myself to tell her about my dd and asked if she coul notify parents just incase the school didn't because I'd want to know if my dd was a close contact. There were a few children and a teacher off in her class with possible covid and I only knew this by overhearing a week before my dd tested positive so In my case the school never said anything and then my dd tested positive.

sittingdownb · 22/11/2021 14:38

Our school are very much still informing parents and teachers of positive cases in any of the classes so I find it odd that others have stopped. It never has been T&T though - I doubt they've the capacity to do it, when someone on our flight tested positive we were told to isolate 24 hours before the 10 day isolation was over.

Comefromaway · 22/11/2021 14:40

Last week test & trace wanted to know The name of ds’s college and the names of anyone he came within 1-2 meteres of!

Comefromaway · 22/11/2021 14:42

My work colleague was asked for phone numbers of his children
S school friends but he refused to give them saying he was not prepared to give out children’s numbers, they would have to ask the school.

NavigatingAdolescence · 22/11/2021 14:42

@blackwych

Test and trace no longer ask for details of close contacts outside of someone's household.

Sounds like this must be the case. Also when I was looking at guidance on the UK gov website it seemed to only be talking about household contacts. Why are they no longer interested in close contacts in places outside of home? - e.g. 7-8 hours breathing the same air in a classroom.

Because with no bubbles any more the entire school population could be a close contact.

Original poster

blackwych · 22/11/2021 15:04

Seems to me that schools are all handling this differently. So some schools are informing parents and staff of positive cases and some (like mine) aren't. I thought close contacts were supposed to be informed so that you would get a PCR test or do lateral flow tests for 10 days. But if no one informs you or requires any testing as a result you are free to unwittingly catch covid and spread it to your vulnerable relatives.

OP posts:

purpleboy · 22/11/2021 15:34

We had a T&T call last week due to a positive case in DDs class. The whole class was asked to get tested. School had nothing to do with it.
Sounds like some T&T call handlers are following up with close contacts others not. Nice and confusing like everything else!

Wintersnuggles10 · 23/11/2021 08:02

My sons just tested positive, along with 4 others in the class. No letter has been sent out by school informing parents there are cases. T&T rang me. Took the school name. Asked if I could provide contact details of those who sit next to my son in class, I said no. They never even asked about the teacher. I informed the school and the teacher directly myself

thewhatsit · 23/11/2021 08:30

@DistrictCommissioner

When my DC had a positive test in mid October, T&T did ask for details of everyone she had been less than 2m away for more than 15 mins & seemed to think I would be able to give details of all 35 I her classmates - obviously I couldn’t, so they took the school name. The implication was they would get in touch with the school, but school took no action so not really sure what is/isn’t supposed to happen. I had told the school anyway, and DC case was one of about 7 or 8 in her class so they were fully aware.

Hm, so they actually ask for all the contacts from the class?

We have a full list of all children and contact details of parents in the class at DC’s school so everyone could give this information but they don’t because I’ve never been contacted by T&T.

Vanillacupcake33 · 23/11/2021 08:38

My dd tested positive track and trace said they would contact the school so they could find out close contacts. My dd went back yesterday after isolation and I was told the teacher is off for 2 weeks so I'm guessing she tested positive but no body was told of this was the case. My ds however was only testing positive on lft and negative on pcr and the school decided to have him isolate buy as he wasn't confirmed by pcr track and trace didn't call me and from what I've heard by parents at his school no one new he was off due to covid and no one has been asked to test...confusing.

DistrictCommissioner · 23/11/2021 09:28

My caller did, although they didn’t fill me with any confidence so they might have been wrong! My DC caught Covid from other class members and we were never contacted by T&T (or school) either.

Comefromaway · 23/11/2021 11:53

We were asked for all the contacts. We gave the names of his closest friends but told them we didn't have phone numbers (partly true as they all just snapchat or Teams call.)