Covid-19: Hampshire NHS issues advice on what to do if your children fall ill over half-term break

As children head home for the half-term holidays, there has been a rise in the number of youngsters falling ill, according to Hampshire’s NHS bosses.

With the cold winter months ahead, Covid-19 and seasonal flu remain a concern for health experts.

Sore throats and a blocked nose are usually the sign of a cold. Other symptoms include sneezing, a stuffy and/or runny nose, coughing, chills, aches, a mild fever, and swollen lymph glands.

Flu has symptoms such as a sudden fever, usually above 38 degrees Celsius, accompanied by chills and shakes, extreme fatigue, muscle aches, a hacking cough, nausea, and vomiting.

Dr Matt Nisbet, a Hampshire GP and a clinical lead for the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Integrated Care Board, said: ‘We’re advising parents, carers and any relatives who will look after children over the half-term to ensure they’re stocked-up on medicines including children’s pain relief.

‘Your pharmacist can help you choose what you may need.

‘Also, make sure your child washes their hands regularly, particularly after playing or going to the toilet and before they eat. This will help reduce the spread of germs and keep down instances of diarrhoea and vomiting or norovirus.’

GP surgeries main opening hours are Monday to Friday, 8am to 6.30pm.

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Outside these times, your local out of hours GP service can be accessed by calling 111 or using the NHS.uk website.

111 will arrange for you to see an out of hours GP, nurse or other member of the clinical team if needed.

‘The NHS is here for you – and in a life-threatening emergency you should always dial 999,’ Dr Nisbet said.

‘There is now also a Healthier Together app which I’d encourage parents and caregivers to download and look through before their children become unwell.

‘As well as offering advice on how to recognise serious illness in children and how to manage minor complaints, this links in with the team at your local surgery, for the many surgeries who have signed up to use the system.’

Urgent treatment centres and pharmacies are equipped to deal with minor injuries, such as cuts or sprains.

The NHS has urged only go to a hospital’s Emergency Department for life-threatening accidents and emergencies.