MIL 84, hairdresser just informed her she has tested positive, but said MIL doesn’t need to isolate as she was wearing a mask?

[Mexicantortilla]

MIL had her hair done Tuesday and hairdresser had a ‘cold’ now hairdresser has rung her today (Friday) to say she has tested positive for Covid but that MIL doesn’t have to self isolate as they were both wearing masks? I can’t find guidance on this, does anyone have an accurate link to guidance, obviously we are concerned and MIL is isolating anyway.

I work in the nhs and come into contact with cv regularly, if her hairdresser was wearing the correct PPE (mask, eye cover, apron etc) then MIL doesn’t ‘have’ to isolate, but obviously can choose to.
If I isolated every time I came into contact with it I’d never be at work!!

I think that's right tbh. We don't have to isolate when there's a positive case at work as we have to wear masks unless we're in a covid secure office.

I'm pretty sure that unless your MIL was in hospital grade PPE then she now needs to self isolate- a mask protects (to some degree), the other people you are breathing on, not you. Surely if the hairdresser has tested positive and been following proper procedure with recording clients etc then the test and trace people will be in touch with everyone she has been in contact with. It's not up to her to decide who has to self isolate!

@ClarkGriswold it matters what ppe the hairdresser had not what ppe MIL had.

I'm assuming by "wearing a mask", that the hairdresser was not in proper PPE? But yes, depends on what they were both wearing in terms of PPE!

Only if she has symptoms isn't it?

Sorry @TrustTheGeneGenie - x-posted. It does, I was focusing on the MIL which is only half the story

TBH I’m not sure if she was wearing mask or visor or combo of both, thought they had to wear both tho now so I will check with MIL, gets very worrying

This is from gov.uk website-

A close ‘contact’ is a person who has been close to someone who has tested positive for COVID-19 anytime from 2 days before the person was symptomatic up to 10 days from onset of symptoms (this is when they’re infectious to others). This could be a person who:
• spends significant time in the same household
• is a sexual partner
• has had face-to-face contact (within one metre), including:
• being coughed on
• having skin-to-skin physical contact, or
• contact within one metre for one minute
• has been within 2 metres of someone who has tested positive for COVID-19 for more than 15 minutes
• has travelled in a small vehicle, or in a large vehicle or plane
Where an interaction between 2 people has taken place through a Perspex (or equivalent) screen, this would not be considered sufficient contact, provided that there has been no other contact such as any of those indicated above.

The contact tracers will not consider the wearing of personal protective equipment (PPE) as a mitigation when assessing whether a recent contact is likely to have risked transmitting the virus. Only full medical-grade PPE worn in health and care settings will be considered.

Only full medical-grade PPE worn in health and care settings will be considered

Which is silly really. My hairdresser had a surgical mask, visor, apron and gloves on when I went last week. We only wear a surgical mask at work (NHS) and that is deemed sufficient.

Thank you, that’s helpful she will continue to isolate.