Good Morning Britain's resident health expert, Dr Hilary Jones, has highlighted the very important things to note if your child has a cough.
The TV doctor appeared on the ITV chat show today, urging parents of young children to consider the key coronavirus symptoms before taking little ones to be tested for the illness.
His warning comes amid a shortage of coronavirus testing kits across the UK and fears of a second wave of the disease that has killed thousands.
Explaining that a child having "just a cough" is not a significant enough sign to rush out and get them tested for Covid-19, Dr Hilary stated that parents should look out for other key symptoms or a change in a kid's normal coughing habits.
"There is no doubt lots of children being sent home with coughs, which are clearly not associated with Covid," he said.
"The guidance is that typical symptoms of Covid is a dry, new continuous cough. All children cough.
"Any parent knows they cough all the time, when they have a drink, if they get dust in their airways, if they have a runny nose or sniffles and mucus runs down the back of their throat, they cough if they have allergies," Dr Hilary continued, drumming in that there are key factors of a coronavirus cough to look for.
"They cough all the time, you can't send every child home who has a cough that is not continuous.
"What we mean by a continuous cough is a cough that lasts for perhaps several minutes, and three or four times a day during a 24-hour period, or a cough every couple of minutes in an hour.
"So a completely new and different cough to what you normally have."
Pointing out other important signs to look for, he went on to say, "What we do know is in children, symptoms are somewhat different to that in adults so if they also have a fever that would be more significant, if they have also had a loss in taste or smell that would be more significant."
