Thread by @fascinatorfun

Secondary school in Ashford.

One child tests positive Wednesday. Other children advised to do LFT but keep attending school.

Now LFT are just nasal swabs.

One family do LFT every day.

Not least because grandmother due to visit Saturday night.

Negative every day. In addition child in class with the positive student does PCR Thursday (-ve). Unsurprising as prob too soon

Negative LFT (nasal swab only) until Monday night. Positive.

Cold symptoms have developed.

But children have continued going to school per DfE advice.

By this morning (Tuesday) 7 children in a class of 30 tested positive using LFT.

School testing remainder of class. Now at least 10 have tested positive and more still to be tested

So that is at least a third of the class testing positive, but a third still to be tested agin.

Meanwhile they have all been going into school.

And at least one grandparent has visited the family, spending the evening there on Saturday.

The family have developed cold symptoms

They are still testing negative.

But, on questioning, it seems they have not been squeezing out the swab with the sides of the test tube after the swab has been swirled several times (for 30 secs in the bottom of the tube solution.)

I watched someone doing a LFT swab this week. It was pretty obvious the swab was not being slid far enough up the nasal passage.

Also there was a problem with squeezing the sides of the test tube together to squeeze the swab on removing it from the tube.

Then there is this.

Now LFT AND PCRs I am told are just nasal swabs.

GP testing using LFT tried one with nasal swab and other with throat swab. (She knows how to do them!)

Throat swab positive. Nasal negative.

How many more are just being missed until too late - or at all?

https://twitter.com/_just_jessing/status/1441721596230635521

Meanwhile in this family the grandmother has now been exposed because they reasonably thought they were all negative.

Peak viral load with Delta is about 3.7-4 days in.

Saturday evening was about 3 to 3.5 days in from point of contact.

Fingers crossed.

Apparently PCR tests are now just nasal swabs too.

The local test station has no appointments.

So a parent has to drive positive child to a testing site 30 miles away. Both in the car there and back.

UPDATE re Ashford school.

16 of a class of 30 have now tested positive…yet most were in school yesterday and many today. Over half the class

That is c 6 days after the original positive case.

How many people have they infected?

Also confirmation that the PCR test site provided a kit with instructions for both nasal and throat swabbing.

I wonder if people who have been doing LFT nasal swabs just assume the PCR is just nasal?

The good news is that more test slots were made available at the local site and they were able to just drop by and get the PCR.

As others in this thread have pointed out, rather important given #fuelcrisis