Coronavirus - the deadly virus that no one dies from

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9485

The toddler had a cough/runny nose overnight so I’m stuck at home now (as is the missus) while we wait to go through the test palaver.

As per the experiences of @mac etc over the last couple of days I can see how this is going to be hugely disruptive over the winter as kids with a sniffle take out a whole household

A couple of other thoughts. The missus is a GP and I’ve no idea why the HSE is persisting with having to organise a test by ringing the local GP. It just adds workloads to an already stressed GP system and the results don’t even go back to the GP. Instead they should just have a 24/7 central call-centre who can quickly refer people for swabbing.

You’d imagine that quicker turnaround for tests should be a priority too. 2-3 days really isn’t great. They don’t accept it in hospitals so unclear why its accepted as the best that can be done for public testing. I can understand some of the issues with setting this up in March. It’s less clear why there are issues 6 months on.

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9486

Are you seriously testing for a runny nose? - I’ve a head cold here - should I be getting tested?

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9487

We got lucky that a good mate of mine is a GP and he sent the referral in on Sunday which put us at the top of the queue for Monday. Without that we’d have been told to fuck off by the out of hours doc and then ringing for a GP appointment on Monday morning or a referral and likely not referred till Monday end of day and then not getting tested until today.

I guess they want to police it so the system isn’t abused but maybe some kind of central triaging like most out of hours doctors service use would be sensible.

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9488

If you ring the doctor now with an itchy ball sack they’ll send you for a Rona test

9489

No - cough as well. I think just a runny nose would have been fine.

I think if you have a cough you should get tested, other symptoms of a cold without a cough may be ok. I’m not fully sure though

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9490

Fair enough … I can see my little one getting my cold but I dont think i’ll be testing for just a runny nose as you said.

9491

This was sent to me over the weekend.

Hi All

My friend who is a doctor posted this and its quite a good breakdown of what to do in a suspected case. Thought I’d pass it on.

The latest National Paediatric Guidelines, (as they currently stand)……

IF your child has a snotty nose, maybe sneezing and NO TEMP OF 38 and OVER And NO cough
IF NO PARACETMOL OR NEUROFEN has been GIVEN
IF the child has had NO COVID CONTACTS
THEN THIS MEANS : NO COVID TEST NEEDED AND NO RESTRICTION OF MOVEMENTS ARE NEEDED
However, You are asked to keep your child at home for 48 hours, to monitor them for ANY new symptoms, which might develop or for any deterioration.
*There is no need to phone the GP, unless you have a specific CLINICAL CONCERN, in this category.

The criteria for us organising a COVID TEST , is much the same for an adult:

  1. Fever greater than or equal to 38
  2. New cough, shortness of breath or Deterioration in existing respiratory symptoms
  3. Loss of taste of smell, or taste or altered sense of taste
  4. Minor respiratory symptoms, in a child who has other ill contacts, is part of an outbreak or is a contact of a proven case.
    • Special consideration is to be given to any child who is immunocompromised , or had an acute illness , needing hospital admission and we have a lower threshold for testing in this group

What to do if a test is indicated?
Then you phone the GP surgery.
We will triage your call and organise a test.
Whilst waiting for the test result, The child must self isolate and the whole household must RESTRICT their movements. (ie ) no school , no work… etc, pending the result.

If the result is negative: then the child continues to self-isolates for 48 hours until after the symptoms but the family no longer restrict their movements.

IF the result is positive, then the child must self isolate for 14 days. The last 5 days MUST be fever free. The household must restrict their movements for 14 days.

If you have a fever or respiratory symptom, please ALERT US TO this FACT. DO NOT ATTEND THE SURGERY , with these symptoms, unless we have instructed you to do so.

Please give as much information, as you can, over the phone.
So , should you need to attend the surgery, then your time here will be as short as possible and we can focus immediately on the clinical examination.

In order for us to protect and treat you, we must PROTECT OURSELVES.

Cohorting patients I feel helps to protect us all and yet continue to provide a service.
Thank you
Dr. Sinead Sheehan
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9492

If 90+% of people with covid are asymptomatic what’s the point in waiting for runny noses. Trying to stop the unstoppable.

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9493

:laughing:

9494

This fella is some clown

9495

DJ Spiral is leading the “Only 100 deaths from Covid-19” bandwagon now

9496

In fairness given the profession of Mrs @tallback, there’s probably more a need to test his young fella

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9497

Just got word - swab tomorrow in Croke Park at 3.40 pm so result won’t be back until Friday at the earliest.

It’s an indication of the lack of capacity built into the system that it’s 30 hours from request for test until swab. The swab should almost be the easy bit to have capacity around.

9498

ah jesus man - will you take a step back
a runny nose?

9499

I usually find Fergal a doom merchant but at least this morning he did mention how ICU and hospital admissions have been stable for quite some time

9500

He’s actually mellowed a fair bit in the past few weeks and has edged towards the OIUTF side of thing, while also having a few cuts off NPHET.

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9501

It’s like whoever is now writing the gov/rte scripts has found TFK recently.

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9502

Thanks.

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9503

My 2 two are coughing for the past 10 days.

No temperature.
Good form.
Good appetites.

Cough is only there at night while in bed, basically snot caught in throat. Runny nose wouldn’t have alarmed us either tbh.
Change in weather brings this all on.

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9504

That’s basically what our lad has but as per HSE it’s isolate and test for that :man_shrugging: