Test to release for Children under 11 arriving to UK from Abroad

luiskov33

silvercar said:

Anj4007 said:

I took my 2 and 4 year old for PCR tests to fly this week and they told me they only needed to swab the inside of the cheeks to which they both complied. I was having nightmares about getting an accurate test if it had to go up the nostrils or back the throat. All went very smoothly. I am now looking online for test to release and most companies are saying they only test age 5 and over so I can’t physically get a test for them on day 5. If both my partner and myself test negative and can be released on day 6 then I think it’s quite explainable if they come knocking looking for 2 toddlers to be in isolation and the parents aren’t home that they don’t provide such a service lol 

The idea is that the adults can go out separately, or if they live in a house with other adults, then the other adults could provide childcare.
Alternatively, you make the decision that only one or possibly neither of you bother paying for TTR. 

Choosing to do the TTR for all adults doesn’t give you permission for non tested people to end isolation, whatever their age.

So how do you end up isolation for Children below 5 if they cannot be tested? Surely either they can be tested or they “follow” their parents meaning if both are negative at day 5 then the child is free to go.
Shame there is no information anywhere regarding that scenario 

silvercar

luiskov33 said:

silvercar said:

Anj4007 said:

I took my 2 and 4 year old for PCR tests to fly this week and they told me they only needed to swab the inside of the cheeks to which they both complied. I was having nightmares about getting an accurate test if it had to go up the nostrils or back the throat. All went very smoothly. I am now looking online for test to release and most companies are saying they only test age 5 and over so I can’t physically get a test for them on day 5. If both my partner and myself test negative and can be released on day 6 then I think it’s quite explainable if they come knocking looking for 2 toddlers to be in isolation and the parents aren’t home that they don’t provide such a service lol 

The idea is that the adults can go out separately, or if they live in a house with other adults, then the other adults could provide childcare.
Alternatively, you make the decision that only one or possibly neither of you bother paying for TTR. 

Choosing to do the TTR for all adults doesn’t give you permission for non tested people to end isolation, whatever their age.

So how do you end up isolation for Children below 5 if they cannot be tested? Surely either they can be tested or they “follow” their parents meaning if both are negative at day 5 then the child is free to go.
Shame there is no information anywhere regarding that scenario 

Either test them, or choose not to. If you don’t want to subject them to the test (quite understandable) then they stay isolated. Nowhere does it say that they follow their parents out of isolation. 

luiskov33

silvercar said:

luiskov33 said:

silvercar said:

Anj4007 said:

I took my 2 and 4 year old for PCR tests to fly this week and they told me they only needed to swab the inside of the cheeks to which they both complied. I was having nightmares about getting an accurate test if it had to go up the nostrils or back the throat. All went very smoothly. I am now looking online for test to release and most companies are saying they only test age 5 and over so I can’t physically get a test for them on day 5. If both my partner and myself test negative and can be released on day 6 then I think it’s quite explainable if they come knocking looking for 2 toddlers to be in isolation and the parents aren’t home that they don’t provide such a service lol 

The idea is that the adults can go out separately, or if they live in a house with other adults, then the other adults could provide childcare.
Alternatively, you make the decision that only one or possibly neither of you bother paying for TTR. 

Choosing to do the TTR for all adults doesn’t give you permission for non tested people to end isolation, whatever their age.

So how do you end up isolation for Children below 5 if they cannot be tested? Surely either they can be tested or they “follow” their parents meaning if both are negative at day 5 then the child is free to go.
Shame there is no information anywhere regarding that scenario 

Either test them, or choose not to. If you don’t want to subject them to the test (quite understandable) then they stay isolated. Nowhere does it say that they follow their parents out of isolation. 

The question is : how do you test them if the government guideline is not to have children below 5 tested for TTR scheme? 
Nowhere does it say that they cannot follow their parents out of isolation and this is actually the case in some places so why not the UK? The lack of guidance and clarity from the government will make people take assumptions on what can be done or not...

silvercar

luiskov33 said:

silvercar said:

luiskov33 said:

silvercar said:

Anj4007 said:

I took my 2 and 4 year old for PCR tests to fly this week and they told me they only needed to swab the inside of the cheeks to which they both complied. I was having nightmares about getting an accurate test if it had to go up the nostrils or back the throat. All went very smoothly. I am now looking online for test to release and most companies are saying they only test age 5 and over so I can’t physically get a test for them on day 5. If both my partner and myself test negative and can be released on day 6 then I think it’s quite explainable if they come knocking looking for 2 toddlers to be in isolation and the parents aren’t home that they don’t provide such a service lol 

The idea is that the adults can go out separately, or if they live in a house with other adults, then the other adults could provide childcare.
Alternatively, you make the decision that only one or possibly neither of you bother paying for TTR. 

Choosing to do the TTR for all adults doesn’t give you permission for non tested people to end isolation, whatever their age.

So how do you end up isolation for Children below 5 if they cannot be tested? Surely either they can be tested or they “follow” their parents meaning if both are negative at day 5 then the child is free to go.
Shame there is no information anywhere regarding that scenario 

Either test them, or choose not to. If you don’t want to subject them to the test (quite understandable) then they stay isolated. Nowhere does it say that they follow their parents out of isolation. 

The question is : how do you test them if the government guideline is not to have children below 5 tested for TTR scheme? 
Nowhere does it say that they cannot follow their parents out of isolation and this is actually the case in some places so why not the UK? The lack of guidance and clarity from the government will make people take assumptions on what can be done or not...

Either you ignore the guideline and get them tested or they remain in isolation. I haven’t seen any mention of under 5s being released early. Remember this is a voluntary test.

silvercar

I can’t see any reference to there being a government guideline not to test to release under 5s. Here is the official gov page: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-test-to-release-for-international-travel
nothing on it about under 5s shouldn’t do it. Do you have a link?

sheramber

This one  https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-test-to-release-for-international-travel
says
You will have to pay the private test provider for your test. You will need to book an individual test for each person opting into Test to Release, including children of all ages

luiskov33

silvercar said:

Either you ignore the guideline and get them tested or they remain in isolation. I haven’t seen any mention of under 5s being released early. Remember this is a voluntary test.

The problem is that you cannot ignore the guideline as not lab will do a TTR for a child under 5 and this is where the gap in the government guidelines is (confirmed by two labs this morning)
Regarding a link, I spent some time on the phone this morning with few labs, Boots and 119 and all confirmed that the guideline is not to TTR children below 5 but there is no law/guideline/recommendations on isolation for those children coming back from an amber country. So therefore, it could end up in a situation where people make assumptions and agree for example with the nursery to send back the kids at day 2 after a lateral test flow, or day 6 after a TTR done by the parents. 

luiskov33

sheramber said:

This one  https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-test-to-release-for-international-travel
says
You will have to pay the private test provider for your test. You will need to book an individual test for each person opting into Test to Release, including children of all ages

This is the "old" guideline - a bulletin received by all labs states that only Children over 5 can do a TTR as already mentioned on the Boots website (and confirmed over the phone)
https://www.boots.com/covid-19-testing/covid-19-test-to-release

onashoestring

This is the government email that you can contact for circumstances not covered by this guidance

“If you’re intending to travel to the UK in the next 7 days and facing a set of circumstances that are not covered by this guidance, email your enquiry to dhsctesttrace.customerfeedbackteam@nhs.net.Make sure you include your date of travel.”

silvercar

luiskov33 said:

silvercar said:

Either you ignore the guideline and get them tested or they remain in isolation. I haven’t seen any mention of under 5s being released early. Remember this is a voluntary test.

The problem is that you cannot ignore the guideline as not lab will do a TTR for a child under 5 and this is where the gap in the government guidelines is (confirmed by two labs this morning)
Regarding a link, I spent some time on the phone this morning with few labs, Boots and 119 and all confirmed that the guideline is not to TTR children below 5 but there is no law/guideline/recommendations on isolation for those children coming back from an amber country. So therefore, it could end up in a situation where people make assumptions and agree for example with the nursery to send back the kids at day 2 after a lateral test flow, or day 6 after a TTR done by the parents. 

So those are guidelines from the testing companies rather than from the government. It may be that is because the staff don’t want the difficulty of swabbing a little one. Are there any TTR companies where you could do the test at home and administer it yourself?

The law is clear, you have to isolate until day 10 if you don’t do TTR, there is no exemption in the law as currently written.
as for doing a LFT instead of PCR, one is just as invasive as the other, so I don’t see why you would happily do a LFT on a toddler but not a PCR.