My daughter has her annual back to school cold (runny nose, and occasional sneezing fit), so needs to get a COVID test before returning to school. My younger daughter, husband, and I already had it like we do every year (always milder than her) and it lasted one day (usually it’s like 2 days, and last year she was out of school with it for 2 days this same week of school since she got sicker).

We were able to get an appointment for her tomorrow at a pop-up site run by the county specifically for rapid-testing symptomatic students and school personnel (so family members can’t get tested there). My mom is asking where the rest of us will be tested.

So...I’d prefer to not all have to get tested every time someone has a cold, which I am sure we will get simply from living in Western NY where we have cold winters. Living in NY, we wear masks at all times in public and we have a specific friend and family circle. Our county positivity rate was hovering around 1.5-2% about 2.5 weeks ago but has since gone down. Either way it’s low.

But I want to hear other’s feedback. If she is negative do you think we all need to get tested even though we’re not sick? Hers will be a rapid/15 minute test so we wouldn’t be sitting around waiting for results.

(I hope it goes without saying but if anyone in the house ever got a positive test we would all isolate together for 2 weeks and notify the district and anyone we were in contact with).