How will we know if our kids have it from April?

[Kage30]

Cases rising in kids school again. Been told to pcr test if any symptoms. But what about form April when pcr testing is ending? Only 11 whole days away?!

I know we still have access to lft's - that you will have to pay for. I have a couple boxes left but won't last forever. Many parents including myself cannot afford to buy multiple lft tests.

Also , lft's aren't always accurate right? So if your kid has symptoms and you get a negative lft doesn't mean that they don't actually have it, could be just too soon to tell? But as above many won't be able to afford to buy multiple lft's.

I mean if your kid is visibly ill with say a fever, bad cough or fatigue etc - keep them off until better. But what about when a child just has mild sniffles? But totally fine in themselves? Paying for an lft each time?!

Thankfully mine aren't ill that often so hopefully won't affect us. But Dd has all year round allergies, usually mild and kept under confirm with antihistamines but if it gets bad for whatever reason she often develops a cough that I've had to test her for to get back to school as her cough has been bad. But I won't be able to afford an lft each time!!

She'd had covid twice and had minimal symptoms each time. Picked up as was testing due to close contact to covid, I wouldn't have known if I didn't test her.

If people want to keep testing with LFs that they purchase themselves, then that's absolutely fine.

Does it matter? Two of my kids caught covid and had nothing more than a sniffle. It was the vaccinated teenager who had it worse tbh. 5 other people in the house and nobody else caught it.

If they're too ill for school then keep them at home, otherwise we have to live with it like we do with flu.

My 4 year old has now come down with chicken pox. It's these sort of other viruses that isolation has been protecting us from, that nobody is vaccinated against, that we need to be worried about imo, not covid.

I’m surprised schools can insist on pcr. They can’t even force lft. My dd stopped testing at the end of feb.

If she is ill, she stays at home. If she is well enough to go to school, she goes. We are moving to living with covid and we will very very likely all get it eventually.

I tested myself last week before I had a blood test out of courtesy for the nurse.

The country can't afford to pay for tests indefinitely either. You know they're not actually free?

Wowzers. Schools are going to be heaving with covid at this rate.

The corollary will be - as is clear from another thread - that many classes will not have their teachers - or any teacher at all, because in general teaching staff (through very high viral load, as well as other reasons) will often be off for unusually long periods as they tend to be getting pretty ill from Covid.

I have had, in over a decade of teaching, 7 days off ill in total. I had 7 for covid alone, and wasn't really well enough to return when I did. The vast majority of my colleagues are the same - newest variant isn't as mild as initial omicron and vaccine efficacy is waning.

@Fritilleries

Wowzers. Schools are going to be heaving with covid at this rate.

Tbf, most are already. Especially in primary, most ill children are sent in unless the symptoms cannot be disguised by a morning dose of calpol, as parents cannot afford more time off. Only the vomiters stay at home, or those whose children aren't just 'flu like' but have raging temperature or are too floppy to get out of bed - about 10% of the school fit into the latter two categories, but we know that many of the rest are also infected because they tell us that e.g. both parents are ill and they have had medicine this morning....

"I mean if your kid is visibly ill with say a fever, bad cough or fatigue etc - keep them off until better"

Plenty of parents send them with the above tbh.

Not that unusual to have kids in who are covid positive.

Will probably find that schools need more supply teachers and lower attendance going forward.

You might have an idea that either your DC or their friends have COVID when they end up without a teacher!

You'll know when all the staff are ill and school is disrupted I'm guessing.

@walksen

"I mean if your kid is visibly ill with say a fever, bad cough or fatigue etc - keep them off until better"

Plenty of parents send them with the above tbh.

Not that unusual to have kids in who are covid positive.

Will probably find that schools need more supply teachers and lower attendance going forward.

Exactly. Both before the pandemic and now we routinely have children sent in with any or all of these.

It is genuinely a really poor idea to rely on 'parental common sense' - or at least, to think that parental common sense will mean that children who are ill with Covid will be kept at home.

Pre-pandemic, it was difficult enough to deal with irate parents convinced that the '48 hours after last being sick' was a good idea for a sick bug ('he was sick this morning, it's out of his system now, no, I can't be contacted for the rest of the day as I've blocked all school calls, bye'). We cannot expect any parents to keep an ill child at home post-pandemic, when so many are struggling economically.

I think I would ask the school what they want you to do when pcrs are no longer available OP.

Think teacher retention will get even worse as a knock on effect of this too.

ECV families are being thrown under a bus here. At the moment covid is still really dangerous for them. But from April, that’s it, no/one will know

@toomuchlaundry

You might have an idea that either your DC or their friends have COVID when they end up without a teacher!

That's happening even with testing so what difference will it make.

@Fritilleries

Wowzers. Schools are going to be heaving with covid at this rate.

They already are. Testing doesn't detect Covid until a few days after catching it, it's already been passed on in that time. Testing is not stopping the spread, it's just costing loads of money.

My dc are 8 and 10 and I have never tested them regularly. They have probably done 3 lft each in total. So no big change really

Wax, at the moment, with testing, some cases are caught and the sufferer removed from the classroom - so they only have the potential to infect those children and adults they were in close contact with for a day or so.

With no testing, they will potentially be in school, infectious, for 7-10x as long, which will obviously lead tyo a much greater number of onward infections - and much higher viral load for the staff and other pupils, which in turn will lead to more severe illness.

So yes, it's bad at the moment. Hopefully, with better weather, it may ease a little - but then could get 7-10x worse.... I don't know about your children's schools, but 7-10x worse will close a LOT more classes in a LOT more schools. Reinfection after 5-6 weeks is quite common here, with second and third infections sometimes much more severe rather than milder.

Being ill is not an on-off switch, is it? Some kids might have a tendency to run hot a bit or get sore throats a lot and parents send them in. I never keep mine off for colds alone, they need to seem out of sorts and have a temp.

It's a false economy because the cost of many parents having to take time off having caught covid from their children must be much more than the cost of the tests.

One symptom of this new variant seems to be diarrhoea. I wonder how many parents will send their children in even with this symptom, as they are not feeling too bad

Testing doesn't detect Covid until a few days after catching it, it's already been passed on in that time.

Is your understanding of the detailed science that covid is infectious from the moment that someone catches it it? My understanding is that the person is exposed to covid, spends some time being fully infected and then becomes infectious - and regular testing detects that?

Which is why lfts say 'probably not INFECTIOUS' not 'probably not INECTED'.

@GeorgieTheGorgeousGoat

Why do you need to know? If she's well enough for school, send her. If she's poorly, keep her home.

It seems those days are gone for most people. The world has changed.

I will need to check what my DD nursery school is post April. Up until now they insist on a PCR before any child can come back. Child has a high temp for a couple of hours in the morning but is fine by the afternoon - they want a PCR test. Child has what appears to be a mild cough but is otherwise well - they want a PCR test, etc. One children her age they won’t accept a LFT and I presume there will won’t be any PCR testing unless you pay privately.

I can’t keep my child home for a week every time she has a mild cough but is otherwise well. Before covid they would give one dose of calpol with parents permission but they won’t do that now.

I’ve never tested my daughter.

@cantkeepawayforever

Wax, at the moment, with testing, some cases are caught and the sufferer removed from the classroom - so they only have the potential to infect those children and adults they were in close contact with for a day or so.

With no testing, they will potentially be in school, infectious, for 7-10x as long, which will obviously lead tyo a much greater number of onward infections - and much higher viral load for the staff and other pupils, which in turn will lead to more severe illness.

So yes, it's bad at the moment. Hopefully, with better weather, it may ease a little - but then could get 7-10x worse.... I don't know about your children's schools, but 7-10x worse will close a LOT more classes in a LOT more schools. Reinfection after 5-6 weeks is quite common here, with second and third infections sometimes much more severe rather than milder.

They seem to be coping OK, DS's teacher hasn't been off at any point, although I only know what's going on with his class to be fair. We get notified if there's a case in the class, there's only been about 5 since coming back after Christmas.