Frustrated. Kid has a cold.

[Glera]

DS has a bit of a snotty nose and has done for 3 or 4 days. Today, he struggled to breath in through nose because it was snotty and because of this, he has coughed.

We rang 111 as he is under 5 but they won't assess him because he is asleep: they cant formally assess his consciousness and responsiveness which I do see, but I know he was completely normal and has been from the beginning.

He has no temp and no other symptoms (even the obscure ones for children).

Common sense prevailing suggests this is a mild cold. No tests available in my area even to be on the safe side. Frustrated at potentially needing atleast a few days off work simply because of the poor, poor testing service - perhaps even more if no tests available for a day or two.

Any further insight or opinions from people? The whole system isn't prepared enough for school's and other businesses being open!

Why did you feel you needed to phone 111 if he just has a cold and has coughed once?

Lots and lots of colds around - the children have been away from other people's bugs for months so immunity is low.

Here in Jersey, right from before the children went back two weeks ago, the island's Medical Officer for Health has been very specific about the differences between a cold and Covid in children. Over here no one would even ring the local helpline for because of the symptoms you describe.

However, we are also in a fairly good position - we closed our borders back in March and didn't open them until July. When we did, we implemented total testing at the border (you know, the kind of border testing the UK government says is a waste of time because it won't work and cases will still go up...) Our cases have been fairly static at around 11-14 active cases in any one day since we opened our borders with testing.

So we're fairly secure in sending our children back to school, and we know the symptoms to look out for for a cold v Covid in children. So far (fingers crossed) we haven't have any community transmission for over 2 months (even with open borders - because... testing at the border) and no cases in any schools on the island since we opened over two weeks ago.

And yet, is it only today the UK have started differentiating between a cold and Covid in children in terms of symptoms? Seems to be two weeks too late! And heaven only knows what's happening with your testing. Jersey saw into the future back in July and ordered its own processing lab, so we can process all our tests on-island. It wasn't rock science that the UK needed to do the same... unless you're Baroness Dido Harding...