Covid experts say it’s time to stop subjecting school pupils to weekly swab tests

Tilly Ward (who is only two years old) has been tested for Covid-19 nine times in the last 11 months.

Every time she gets a tickly throat, she’s required to have a test, as per the rules of the nursery she attends five mornings a week.

And it can’t be a lateral flow test performed at home. A highly sensitive PCR test must be done by a pop-up testing center in the area. 

The first few weren’t a problem, but at around test number five, something changed.

‘She wasn’t happy at all,’ says her father Mark, 34, a businessman from Oxfordshire. ‘She seemed uncomfortable, and was very teary afterwards.’

Test number six saw Tilly wobbling so badly that her head was tilted forward. Mark accidentally poked the swab into Tilly’s nostril. This caused a nosebleed.

He then asked his parents for advice on how to prevent injuries during the administration of the swab.

He says: ‘They told me the only way they’d managed to get their toddler to stay still was by restraining them. It sounded terrible, but I could see how it might be necessary, given how much she wriggles.’

Now he prevents injuries by ‘wrapping my legs around her body, and putting her into a sort of headlock’. 

He adds: ‘Even saying it makes me go cold. I feel terrible, but it’s better than poking her in the eye with the swab, or giving her a nosebleed.

It is not surprising that he describes the trauma for parent and child as traumatic. Tilly’s most recent test, earlier this month, caused a total meltdown. 

Mark says: ‘In the car, on the way to the test centre, she knew what was coming. She started shouting “No, no, no, no, no,” and shaking her head manically. When we finally arrived, she had already started screaming at her highest volume.

‘This continued while we did the test, and she got herself so worked up that as soon as I let go, she vomited twice and cried hysterically the whole way home.

‘I just thought, there’s got to be a better way to do this.’

Despite Tilly’s slight cough, the result was negative – as it had been for the eight previous tests.

And as Mark says: ‘Most toddlers are lucky if they go for a month without developing a cough or cold. Given the amount of distress it causes, you have to wonder, is it really necessary, especially now?’

Mail on Sunday learned from The Mail on Sunday that primary schools still require children to complete up to five Covid exams per week, despite ending Plan B restrictions.

It’s a fair question. Last week the Government announced the end of the Plan B restrictions introduced in December to combat the Omicron variant – including mask-wearing in shops and on public transport, and guidance to work from home where possible. 

The Mail on Sunday learned however that primary schools still require children to complete up to five Covid exams per week.

According to parents, nurseries now require that one-year olds undergo PCR testing if their nose becomes runny. This is contrary to Government guidance.

One investigation also revealed that some primary schools require whole year classes of students as young as 5 to undergo a PCR testing every time an employee tests positive.

Campaign group Us For Them say it is supporting parents across the UK who are ‘desperate and confused about constant tests on their healthy children’.

The findings come as the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health warns of ‘huge disruption’ caused by testing protocols in schools, and Covid-related absences reach the highest level since the Omicron wave began. 

More than 323,000 students in school-funded state schools have been reported as missing for Covid reasons. This represents 3.9 percentage of pupils.

Darryl Baker, a 35-year-old journalist from North London, (pictured) has had no choice but to subject her two-year-old daughter Blake to five ‘traumatic’ PCR tests over the past year when the nursery she attends three times a week insisted it was necessary

One Hertfordshire-based mother told The Mail on Sunday: ‘Last week my child’s junior school asked for all pupils to be tested by PCR test if they have cold symptoms, and have stopped children mixing in dining rooms and outside the classroom.

‘Now there’s only half of them in class – they’re either positive or sitting around waiting for tests.’

Other parents have described the act of testing their children as ‘agonising’. ‘It’s a two-man job to hold my two-year-old down and stop her head bobbing forwards,’ said one mother from North London. 

‘There’s a serious risk I might injure her with the amount she wriggles and squirms while I try to get the swab in. She hates every minute of it.’

Now, with a post-pandemic Britain on the horizon, a growing number of scientists – some of whom usually take a cautious approach to Covid rules – say it is time to scrap school testing altogether.

In October, Sir Andrew Pollard, Professor of Paediatric Infection and Immunity at the University of Oxford and co-chairman of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, said: ‘The large amount of testing in schools is disruptive to the system. It is time to transition to clinically driven testing, especially over winter. In other words, testing people who are unwell rather than having regular testing of people who are well.’

Dr Allyson Pollock, clinical professor of public health at Newcastle University, agrees, describing regular testing for primary school children as ‘absolutely appalling’. 

She says: ‘Omicron is mild for children, and many of them will be asymptomatic.

‘Testing can be a traumatic experience and should only be done if absolutely necessary, such as if children are ill enough to need medical attention.’

According to Government guidelines in England, mass testing for healthy primary school children is not required. But if pupils develop one of the three Covid-19 symptoms – a continuous cough, a fever or a loss of taste and smell – they must seek a highly sensitive PCR test, either ordered from the Government website or at a local pop-up centre

The Government has issued guidelines to schools in an effort to combat rising Omicron cases. It advised that school close friends of Omicron-infected students should perform rapid lateral flow testing at home each day for one week.

The Government of England has stated that no mass screening is required for children who are healthy in the primary school.

But if pupils develop one of the three Covid-19 symptoms – a continuous cough, a fever or a loss of taste and smell – they must seek a highly sensitive PCR test, either ordered from the Government website or at a local pop-up centre.

The Government has issued guidelines to schools in an effort to combat rising Omicron cases. It advised that school-based close contact of Omicron pupils be able take quick lateral flow tests every day at home for one week.

However, parents told The Mail Sunday that the schools enforce this rule in all classes and year groups of pupils.

‘It’s up to the school to decide who they class as a close contact,’ one mother of an eight-year-old boy told The Mail on Sunday. 

‘So they send letters telling us my son has to test for a week, even though the person who tested positive was in another class.’

Children under 5 years old are not eligible for the rule. Children under 5 years of age should not be subject to PCR testing if they experience any of the Covid-19 symptoms or if anyone in the household is positive. 

However, the parents claim that nurseries create their own rules.

Darryl Baker, a 35-year-old journalist from North London, has had no choice but to subject her two-year-old daughter Blake to five ‘traumatic’ PCR tests over the past year when the nursery she attends three times a week insisted it was necessary. 

Blake received an email earlier this month warning her that a PCR testing would be necessary if she developed a runny or irritated nose.

‘I understand they are worried about an outbreak, but there needs to be a bit of give and take,’ says Darryl, who has another daughter, Cole, aged ten months. 

‘Two-year-olds get snotty noses all the time. The last time Blake had a temperature it was because she was teething – it’s never been Covid.’

Advocates for mass testing of children say it doesn’t only protect children themselves from catching Covid from classmates, but also those in the wider community.

But experts say that even when infants have official Covid-19 symptoms, testing is unnecessary as the virus isn’t likely to cause them, or anyone else they come into contact with, any serious harm. 

Yes, Omicron is hitting babies like Boris’s Romy – but it is rarely as worrying as it appear

Social media has been abuzz with rumours about the Omicron version of Covid being more severe for children in recent weeks. This is after data showed a rise in hospitalisations among under-17-year-olds.

The concern was exacerbated last week when it was revealed that Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s six-week-old daughter Romy had suffered ‘quite badly’ with Covid, although she is now reported to be on the mend.

Data from earlier this month showed that the majority of child hospitalisations have been among children under one. 

However, experts advise parents not to panic because the vast majority of these children do not have serious illnesses and are only being admitted as a precaution. 

Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s six-week-old daughter Romy had suffered ‘quite badly’ with Covid, although she is now reported to be on the mend

Professor Calum Semple, a child health and infectious disease expert at the University of Liverpool, says: ‘These are not particularly sick infants. In fact, they’re coming in for short periods of time.’

Omicron may result in more children being admitted to hospital than Delta because it has a greater effect on the upper lungs.

This can cause children to cough repeatedly and make a rasping sound when breathing – symptoms that can be mistaken for croup, a normally mild and common childhood condition that affects the airways.

‘Parents may bring children to hospital just in case, because they’re worried,’ says Dr David Strain, Covid lead at the Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust.

‘But the babies end up being admitted for a very short period as a precaution.’

Expert in paediatric infectious diseases at University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust Dr Alasdair Mouro says there has been an increase in children who are being admitted to hospital. This is because they have not yet received their vaccines.

He adds: ‘The shifting proportions of admissions are likely due to differences in population immunity between age groups.’

Professor Azeem Majeed, a public health expert who heads the Department of Primary Care and Public Health at Imperial College London, says: ‘Children get infections, coughs and colds all the time. So they end up stuck in a constant loop of test after test, which can be very traumatic.’

Recent data show that Covid-19 infected young children are very common. The highest rate is found among five- to eleven-year-olds. 

But about half of all children infected with Covid don’t get symptoms. Researchers believe the Omicron variant will make the condition even less dangerous for children.

Importantly, for the larger population, nearly all adults today have antibodies to Covid-19. Even the most severely ill and dying are protected by vaccines that have stood up to the new version.

‘At the beginning of the autumn term, Britain saw record highs of infections in children and we were prepared for a surge in hospitalisations,’ says Dr Alasdair Munro, clinical researcher in paediatric infectious diseases at University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust.

‘We saw a large increase in infections in adults, but only a very small and short-lived increase in hospitalisations.’

Children younger than teenagers are much less likely to get the virus than those who have come in contact with them. For example, their father or mother would self-isolate.

Experts are unanimous in agreeing that routine testing for vaccines is not necessary in an extremely vaccinated population. 

This raises the question, “Will Covid testing be stopped soon?” Numerous experts agree.

‘I think that is where we are going to end up soon,’ says Dr Munro. ‘Thanks to the success of our vaccination programme and lots of prior infections, the risk of infection is very similar to other respiratory viruses, like flu. 

‘And we have learned to live with them without having to identify and isolate every positive case – so we are trying to aim for that. The efforts we have to undertake to prevent transmission may cause more problems than they solve.’ 

The consensus among many doctors is that tests should be reserved for those in clinical care – in other words, when they are unwell enough to need medical help. There are indications that the government may be already moving in this direction.

Reports surfaced last week suggesting that pop-up testing centres are soon to be dismantled, and free lateral flow tests will no longer be available on the Government’s website by the summer.

‘As the virus become endemic, it doesn’t make sense to keep testing everyone and isolate contacts,’ says Prof Pollock. 

‘For the vast majority of people, this virus will be a very mild sniffle. In many cases, knowing you have Covid-19 serves very little benefit, and even if you do pass it on, the likelihood is the next person won’t get particularly ill either.’

Although it is unclear if tests for Covid symptoms will be discontinued, a more common and sensible approach to the problem should take their place. 

‘If you are coughing a lot, or have bad symptoms that could spread infections to others, stay at home,’ says Prof Pollock.

While it’s not clear if Covid tests will be abandoned for people with symptoms like Covid, an easier, more intuitive approach could replace them. [Stock photo]

In the meantime, some experts believe we ought to pursue an alternative, less invasive method – especially when it comes to testing children. 

In Austria’s capital, Vienna, health chiefs have distributed a mouthwash test to families across the city, and recommend young children use it in place of swabs.

The users will then swallow the clear liquid in a glass and take it to a pot for testing.

Studies show that the test is at least as accurate as PCR tests – picking up roughly 96 per cent of positive cases.

‘It is probably even more effective than the swab tests because it picks up virus deep within the throat that the swab can’t get to,’ says Dr Peter English, a public health expert who has chaired the British Medical Association’s Public Health Medicine Committee. 

‘And most importantly, it is far less unpleasant for everybody – especially for young children.’