Self isolation advice....not that straightforwards to interpret...

[littlefireseverywhere]

So DS has come home from school (y12) saying he needs to self isolate as 2 of his friends need to isolate due to a friend at school has tested positive for Covid.

My interpretation is that he doesn't need to self isolate unless school advise him to. DS spends break and lunch time with the affected student, however it's in a common area and unless specifically told by the school my interpretation is that he needs to continue going in. School haven't advised us to self isolate, so I'm going to continue sending him & siblings to school unless notified otherwise.

DS of course, thinks he and the rest of us in the family do now need to self isolate for 14 days. I can't actually find anything that says this.

What do you think?

I think I'd contact school. But unless he's had 'close contact' then he doesn't need to. If he does need to self isolate then the rest of the family does not need to unless he develops symptoms.

If he's identified as a close contact then you'll be contacted by school in the first instance and advised he needs to self isolate. Track and Trace will then follow up with you daily (at least they do here in Wales).

Only your DS will need to self isolate unless he develops symptoms. At that point then the rest of the household isolates whilst testing is completed. Test results dictate what happens next.

I work in a school and there always seems to be confusion regarding siblings. Siblings of an identified close contact don't need to isolate as they are a contact of a contact. They don't become a close contact until your DS were to develop symptoms. If a positive test the. Their close contacts are identified and so on.

Thank you, that makes total sense & was pretty much what I was thinking.

He only needs to self isolate is he's confirmed as a close contact of someone who'd tested positive. At the moment he's one step away from that. He would be the only one who would need to self isolate and you would only need to if he developed symptoms.

I would wait to hear from the school for now and keep sending him in.

If he spent more than 15 minutes within 2m of the one who tested positive, he ought to isolate, but the rest of your family do not need to. It doesn't make any difference whether it was in a common area or a classroom.

I gather that schools are looking at seating plans and working out who has been "in close contact" with affected students, but they need to ask the question about lunchtimes as well. (Also about lessons where they had a supply teacher and nobody could remember the seating plan, so they sat where they liked...)

@littlefireseverywhere

So DS has come home from school (y12) saying he needs to self isolate as 2 of his friends need to isolate due to a friend at school has tested positive for Covid.

My interpretation is that he doesn't need to self isolate unless school advise him to. DS spends break and lunch time with the affected student, however it's in a common area and unless specifically told by the school my interpretation is that he needs to continue going in. School haven't advised us to self isolate, so I'm going to continue sending him & siblings to school unless notified otherwise.

DS of course, thinks he and the rest of us in the family do now need to self isolate for 14 days. I can't actually find anything that says this.

What do you think?

Yabu not to take the initiative and contact the school!

@SoloMummy I’ve emailed the school & not heard back .