People only need a test if they're symptomatic,
if they've got one of these three symptoms of COVID:
of a temperature,
a new and persistent cough,
or loss, or change in your sense of taste or smell.
These are the times you need to get a test.
If you're a contact of somebody,
say your child has been in contact with somebody who's got a positive test,
and they've been asked to go home for 14 days,
they do not need a test.
And even if they have a test,
it will not reduce the length of time that they need to isolate.
The only time they would need a test
is if they become symptomatic.
Same with household contacts
they do not need a test;
they just need to self-isolate for the 14 days.
It's not just one bout of coughing.
It's a cough that somebody's coughing consistently for an hour,
or there's three bouts of coughing over 24 hours.
And if you've / somebody's already got a cough,
we say to an adult that cough has got worse.
If they are displaying at school, any of these three symptoms,
if they've got a temperature, they've got a persistent cough,
or if they have got a change or a loss of their taste or smell,
so it's only in these circumstances you would say yes you must go home just now,
you've got these symptoms;
or if it becomes clear at school that somebody's had a test
and that test result is positive.
But if you've been ill enough to go and get a test, shouldn't actually have come to school.
I would say you should use the normal process as you would.
If this child has got an absolutely streaming cold, they're sneezing over people,
you wouldn't want them at school anyway.
you should say to go home.
but if they're the only symptoms they've got, again they don't need a test,
and they can come back to school when they're feeling better;
they don't need to do the whole 10 days they would with COVID.
And if it's very mild symptoms they can be at school.
In most cases, if you've had a negative test, but you still have a cough, it'll be due to something else.
If you have a temperature, people should not be returning to work.
NHS Inform, the website is really good.
It's got loads of information and it's very easy to understand.
All these short contacts within one to two metres across a day,
if they add up to 15 minutes,
then you would be classed as a contact.
And if you're only a metre apart from somebody, particularly if it's face to face,
even a minute, your classed as a contact.
No, it doesn't.
We want people to wear a mask because it does protect other people,
and there's some evidence that it reduces the risk of infection,
but if you are still within that one to two metres,
or within a metre with face-to-face contact,
then even if you're wearing a mask you would still be asked to self-isolate as a contact.
Well, remember people should only have been going for a test if they've got symptoms,
so if you've got a household that has symptoms,
they all need to self-isolate,
and nobody can go back to work or go back to school,
until you've got negative tests for the whole household.
But, if people have just got tested because they're in the household and are contacts,
the mistake is they should not be being tested.
Not if it's wet toothbrushing with water,
but if it's the dry toothbrushing, yes you can,
and there's quite detailed guidance that people can look at,
on how to store the toothbrushes, etc,
but it's probably very very similar to what you're already doing.
Our Test and Protect contact tracers would talk in detail with that teacher
about the type of contact they'd had, and where it was,
and make that decision on an individual basis.
But as long as the social distancing rules have been adhered to,
it wouldn't necessarily be that every single class had had to self-isolate,
it will depend on these circumstances.
As we've said, people should only be going to get tested if they've got the COVID symptoms,
but if they then get a negative result, they can go back to school.
So it's perfectly reasonable, I think,
for the school to say to a parent can we see that result and just confirm it is negative.
With the with the parents consent,
I think that's that's very reasonable.
What we would ask is that teachers don't phone Public Health asking for the negative result,
mainly because we're just so busy and that would add an additional burden to us.
Just to reassure you that the process is consistent,
but it means it doesn't always end up the same.
So, we go into a lot of detail with the case about who they've been in contact,
was there social distancing, and how many people did they contact.
In a primary school, particularly when it's the youngest children in a primary school,
they've usually mixed with so many people in the class,
that it's entirely reasonable to say the whole class should self-isolate.
With older pupils,
where they might be mixing with a smaller number and you can actually identify the individuals,
we wouldn't necessarily send home the whole class.
So it depends on what information the Test and Protect contact tracers find out.
That is also discussed at what we call the Problem Assessment Group
that we've written to you about to
tell you we'd be holding these if there's a positive test.
So it's really helpful if before the representative of the school comes to that PAG,
that they've found out about these contacts and how much mixing there was,
what social distancing there was,
and then we can act very quickly to tell people to self-isolate.