7 days lft instead of 1 pcr test

[KMBM107]

So Friday DD8 (year 4) was sent notification to have pcr as a child in class had tested positive for covid

Today (Wednesday) DD5 reception was sent a notification as another child is positive and now the advice is 7 days of lateral flow tests.

7 days of tests for a 5 year old that has no symptoms
Is surely abit overkill? Would you do 7 days of tests?

Yes as think it's better than isolation or a pcr. I took my child for pcr as per guidelines at the time which was negative. 4 days later he tested positive on lateral flow. We wouldn't have known otherwise. Some people were testing too early when it was just a pcr. Daily lateral flows are more likely to pick it up. That's my opinion anyway. Currently in the same situation and testing 2 of my children daily so they can go about as usual

Sorry I didn't read that properly. Just realised it's a class contact, and not necessarily a close contact or household. I'm not actually sure if I would do it every day for 7

Yes. Currently testing everyone in the house daily as 8yo DS is unvaccinated and has no history of prior infection. We live in an Omicron hot-spot and cases in school are rife. DH & I both work in healthcare so would require pcr to go to work if in contact with a positive case (Scotland). If you know dc has been a contact I would lft daily. If they become symptomatic but still have negative lft then I would then get PCR for them to be sure.

For added context - 8 year old had covid back in the summer. Didn’t pass on to any of us (me, her dad, sister and she also had contact with her grandparents the day before she showed symptoms)
My 5 year old literally screams and refuses to have the tests whilst I want to ensure everyone is safe I just don’t no if I can do this for 7 days…

The new rules from Tuesday just gone in England is if you are a contact of someone with covid is to do daily LFT tests for 7 days unless you have symptoms then you need a PCR test. There’s going to be masses of parents who cannot do this and I presume some won’t, but it does help in picking up cases.

Yes I would do it, in fact I have done it even in November when it wasn’t the rule but i thought that the date available for a PCR wasn’t making sense. At the time my kid was always negative. Then he went back to school in January and after 3 days he was sick. There’s another outbreak in class (3 kids and 2 staff) now despite having had already a huge number of cases in November. So any LFT which picks up the asymptomatic would be a great idea.

Also a great idea would be NOT sending coughing kids in school “because it tested negative”. In doubt, perhaps, wait another day and do another test. Clearly unwell children would be much better at home, test or not.

If your 5 yo finds the tests distressing, don’t do it. It seems cruel to me to put small children through it every day when there’s no benefit to them and they don’t need it for their own sake.

I would hazard a guess that most parents wouldnt manage to keep this up, particularly for repeated bouts of 7 days. Also can’t see Boris pinning down his toddler for a quick LFT before he heads off to the commons. It’s only on mumsnet where, if you manage to pin down and distress your screaming 5yo 6 days out of 7 but miss one day, you’re called selfish and inconsiderate.

The new rules from Tuesday just gone in England is if you are a contact of someone with covid is to do daily LFT tests for 7 days unless you have symptoms then you need a PCR test. There’s going to be masses of parents who cannot do this and I presume some won’t, but it does help in picking up cases.*

I thought this had been the advice for a while? We stayed with a relative just after Xmas who tested positive while we were there. We came home and started testing every day.(also cancelled social plans as we knew we had been close contacts) 3 out of 4 of us tested positive on day 3 after seeing them. (Then continued testing DS daily as he was a close contact of us)

However I would think this would be much more difficult a) with younger children and b) considering lfts seem pretty sparse.

@LethargicActress

If your 5 yo finds the tests distressing, don’t do it. It seems cruel to me to put small children through it every day when there’s no benefit to them and they don’t need it for their own sake.

The benefit is that they don't have to isolate.

They don't have to isolate even if they don't do the LFTs. Its 'strongly recommended' to do them. There is no rule that says if you don't then you have to isolate (in England at least).