In early September, SVT Nyheter reported on infection control restrictions for children in school and preschool.
The Swedish Public Health Agency then recommended that school children with symptoms should be PCR-tested to see if they have an ongoing infection, and that they could return to school with mild symptoms - as long as they tested negative for covid-19.
Preschoolers, on the other hand, would stay home at the slightest symptom.
Doctor: Reasonable to change
But now it looks a little different.
On Thursday, FHM changed the recommendations on its website and now allows children with a mild runny nose or cough to return to preschool provided they have already been home for seven days since they first developed symptoms.
- It's wise.
Several studies have shown that the coronavirus is most contagious in the first week after the onset of symptoms.
Then it is reasonable for a preschool child who has a runny nose or cough to go back to preschool after that time, says Cecilia Chrapkowska, pediatrician and doctoral student in vaccination epidemiology.
"Must test to know"
If a child is ill. How to know if it is covid or a cold?
- You have to test to know.
For preschool children, we do not have general testing, in which case it is on the prescription of a doctor.
There is one symptom that is a little more specific to covid than other symptoms - loss of smell and taste.
- If the child himself complains that the food does not taste anything, you can test with the coffee can.
If it smells nothing, you might think they have covid.
Most children get very little sick, the virus behaves like a common cold.