After being back at school for a week my son has got a sore throat and a high temperature. Probably not Covid, but we all need to isolate until we find out for sure. #CovidTesting

That means his brothers being pulled out of school and my wife not being able to go to work. She’s a 1-2-1 teaching assistant supporting a child with medical needs at school.

Problem is, we can’t get a test. Most times we try the government website it is too busy and tells us to come back later. The few times we’ve got past this stage we are told that there are no tests.

No tests at test centres. No home testing kits. Nothing. My colleague, who lives in a totally different part of the country, can’t get #CovidTesting either.

A local friend was offered a test for her child – in Swansea. That’s a 5-hour, 250-mile trip. (Probably 50 miles as the crow flies if you don’t mind swimming the Bristol channel in between) #CovidTesting

But we’ve not even been offered Swansea. If my son can’t be tested, then the kids, who have already missed months and months of education, have to miss 2 weeks more.

The eldest is just getting started at college. His brother is in his GCSE exam year. Not a good time to be missing more school.

In my wife's school, there’s only one other person trained to support the child with medical needs. If she goes off for any reason, that child will not be able to come to school either.

Schools are precariously staffed – lose a couple of teachers and some schools simply won’t be able to run. I imagine the situation is similar in hospitals. We’ve got friends in the NHS who can’t get a test for their child either.

Every September our kids pick up bugs from each other when they return to school. A cold can rob them of their taste and smell, or give them a fever. Both are symptoms of Covid, so their families need to isolate for 14 days.

With no tests available, how is this going to work? (Not to mention that one of the bugs doing the rounds at school this September will be coronavirus itself).

I know there’s nothing new in this thread but wanted to share a real life example of the #CovidTesting shortage. I don’t know how schools and NHS services are going to cope.