Advice on when we can stop isolating please?

[Pushpushpoosh]

My mum who lives with us tested positive first. We have been isolating since the date of her test. I tested positive 2 days later however my husband tested negative. Were we're due to finish our isolation on Wednesday however my husband now has symptoms and has just tested positive. When are we able to stop isolating now? We have 2 children who haven't had symptoms so haven't been tested but when can our eldest go back to school? There's conflicting advice and when we asked a track and trace person who called they said "oh I'm not sure let's cross that bridge when we come to it" 🤯

[Chocs44]

Anyone in the house with no symptoms or a negative test isolates for 14 days from when the first person in the house tested positive or had symptoms. If anyone else in the house then develops symptoms and has a positive test they then isolate for ten days from their symptoms or positive test. We've just been through all this with my family. It's all very confusing!

[Pushpushpoosh]

Thankyou @Chocs44 very confusing, that means the children can still go back to school on the planned day which is good as they're climbing the walls!

[kazza446]

@Chocs44 is that correct? I tested positive last Tuesday, symptoms started the Sunday before. I’m due to be out of isolation on 12th, the remainder of the family on the 16th. My child has started with symptoms today and we are going to test tomorrow. I thought common sense would be the rest of the family start their isolation period again. 119 were useless tonight when we spoke to them !

[Chocs44]

This is from the government website.

[Maryann1975]

I was talking about this with a head teacher yesterday and she said that as stupid as it seems, she has been informed by phe that the children can go back to school 14 days after the original positive test regardless If another family member has a positive tests in the meantime. We were both really surprised by this and felt it didn’t sound right.
@kazza446 as my friend told me, then your dc would start a 10 day isolation period, but after the original 14 days are over, the rest of the family are able to go about life as normal.
It might be worth trying to find a telephone number for your local covid line (I think every council has one?) to try to find out definitely though.

[ChocBeforeCock]

@Chocs44 is correct.
I asked Test and Trace this exact question as my husband tested positive 3 days before my daughters. As I have not developed symptoms, my isolation period is not affected by the later positive tests. The woman I spoke to said they’d been trained on this and it’s because otherwise, especially in big households, people could end up isolating a very long time!

[Chocs44]

Just finished isolating I hate being stuck in the house so was pleased it wasn't any longer despite my youngest daughter testing positive a few days after my eldest! But yes it's all very confusing and doesn't seem to make much sense!

[kazza446]

Thanks all!!

[Alfiemoon1]

I work for test and trace doing the welfare calls of people already isolating chocs44 is right in the advice given

[kazza446]

So, my isolation period finished 2 days ago. My DH and DS subsequently confirmed positive. Both are still self isolating. My other 3 children were due to return to school tomorrow with their idol period finishing at midnight tonight. One of them lost their sense of smell yesterday. We’ve been to have him tested today so he’s now having to stay in isolation pending test result. I’m hoping I don’t have to go back into isolation!!!

[justchecking1]

That is correct in the advice given. However the proviso is that everyone has been socially distancing/self isolating since the first positive so it's therefore unlikely that you'd pick it up from anyone else in the house under those circumstances. In reality, we're unlikely to be distancing from people in our households, so the rules are based on a pragmatic approach, in that people would never comply with 2 or 3 back to back isolation periods, rather than a robust infection control approach.