Mum criticises ‘flawed’ test system as son has to isolate
A Bath mother has expressed frustration at the “crazy” system which means her son has to isolate for 10 days after being in school for three hours, despite a classmate who had a positive Covid test later testing negative.
Hayley Wood, 46, sent her 12-year-old son Louis into Ralph Allen School in Bath on March 10 for the first time in months.
Louis walked into school for 40 minutes with a group of classmates. Upon arriving all pupils had to selfadminister a lateral flow test, which provides results within 30 minutes. They had been shown how to do this by a teacher before administering the tests.
One of the boys Louis walked in with had a positive lateral flow result. As a result, all “close contacts”, including the group he had walked in with, have to isolate for 10 days along with the child’s family and bubble.
Even though the same child went home and then had a PCR test which gave a negative result, Louis has still been forced to isolate.
Ms Wood, from Combe Down, said it seemed illogical that a negative PCR test did not override the positive lateral flow administered by a child, albeit one supervised by an adult.
She said: “Louis is in Year 7 and has the most disrupted year. This system is so flawed, the boy who had the positive result has now thankfully tested negative with a full PCR test. We’re so pleased he hasn’t got it so it seems to make sense that they should be allowed to go back to school.
“The focus from the Government has been how important it is to get the students back into school, we know that it has been so detrimental to their mental health and development to spend this long away.
“Louis was so excited to go into school yesterday but now has to be home for ten days again.
“What I do not agree with is how if they do a lateral flow test at home and it’s positive but then a subsequent PCR is negative that does override the positive result. But if the lateral flow test is at school it doesn’t get overridden.”
The current government policy explains that because the lateral flow test was done in a “supervised environment” at a school it outweighs any other result.
The policy says: “Robust evaluations from Public Health England and the University of Oxford show lateral flow tests have extremely low rates of false positives.
“LFD tests taken on test sites, such as on school and college grounds, do not need a PCR confirmation. This is because these tests are done in a supervised environment.”
Ms Wood said: “Louis was upset to miss school again, he said he doesn’t want to spread the virus and has been so understanding but I do think the current system is flawed. I agree with the testing wholeheartedly but if you have a negative PCR you should be able to come back.
“Further time off school is the last thing children need now for their mental health and development.
“The school has been great, there isn’t anything they can do as it’s government policy. We all just want the children back in school and I know this has affected other year groups as well.”
Ralph Allen School declined to comment.
Ms Wood has called on Wera Hobhouse, Bath’s MP, to raise this issue on behalf of all children in Bath and North East Somerset.
A spokesman for the Liberal Democrat said she was looking for ways to raise this issue further.
The spokesman added that the MP’S focus was on getting children back to school safety.
The Department for Health and Social Care said that lateral flow tests identify the most infectious individuals who spread the virus to many people and so identifying them remains “important”.