Would you self isolate?

[janemaster]

The advice is to self isolate if you have travelled from certain areas abroad, even if you have no symptoms. We know in other countries that not everyone has followed this advice.
So be honest, if you had no symptoms but were told to self isolate for 2 weeks in the house, would you? This would mean not leaving the house at all and staying in a separate room from anyone else living in your house.

YABU - No I would not
YANBU - Yes I would

Someone I work with has a cousin who returned from Tenerife and was staying right next to the hotel that was quarantined. He was ill when he returned and spent all day with the person I work with. He hasn’t self isolated and I suspect many won’t. When people go abroad for Easter, that’s when it will blow up because if people aren’t getting paid, they won’t self isolate.

I wouldn't self isolate unless I had symptoms or had been in close contact with someone who has tested positive. DH is self employed and would definitely keep working unless he was actually ill and struggling because two weeks unpaid would mean that we couldn't pay the rent.

Yep. No problem. Can work from home - do a bit anyway. Am a general prepper so have plenty of stuff in.

Yes I would but I live alone and my employer has decent sick pay so not as difficult for me as for others. If my employer wouldn’t pay me then I can’t afford to not be paid so wouldn’t be able to self-isolate unless I was actually ill.

I'd still have to go to the shops!

I would but I'm aware that I/we are in a privileged position being able to. Neither of our employers would object and we could both work from home (not ideally, but it is possible). We could also afford to lose a couple of weeks pay if it came to it.

@katy1213 , you could always do something about that so that you wouldn't have to.

I would follow the Government advise.

So, if they say 'self isolate for 14 days if you have been here' - would stay home, as would dh and dd.

If they say 'self isolate IF you have symptoms after visiting here' - then Id go to work unless I got symptoms.

However, I can see why some people would chose not to self isolate - the big one is that you may not get paid, or - if earning more - only get SSP for a fortnight. Not everyone's workplaces will pay out and not everyone can afford to loose a fortnight's pay.

I'd still have to go to the shops!
You should find an alternative. Online shopping or having someone you know drop bags of shopping off for you.

If Tesco won't deliver to the door because of bagless deliveries, find a company who will.

Ocado will, Waitrose will. I am sure others will too.

Or arrange to have some boxes left outside for them to decant into if they really can't find a way round it themselves.

You can get food and medicine delivered! How selfish!

Must be great that every one on MN lives near towns or cities that offer food deliveries. Plenty of us in rural areas have no such services. And don't get paid if we don't go to work.

Someone local to me is supposed to be in self isolation as just back from infected area but went to hairdressers because they “really needed a haircut.”

Someone else went to our local mini-hospital because they thought they might have the virus. So the whole mini-hospital had to close while they did a deep clean.

Some people huh.

if my boss is happy to pay me to sit around watching netflix and reading all day then yes woo hoo!

Do you have toilet paper for when you need to break from Netflix and go to the loo. Do you have a bottomless list of people with nothing more important to do than your shopping and no chance of having to self isolate themselves?

publichealthmatters.blog.gov.uk/2020/02/20/what-is-self-isolation-and-why-is-it-important/

Who needs to self-isolate?

Currently in the UK, self-isolation is relevant to several groups of people:

• People who are waiting for a COVID-19 test result

• People who are identified as being a close contact of someone with coronavirus

• Returning travellers... from:

Hubei province in China in the last 14 days, even if you do not have symptoms

Iran, lockdown areas in northern Italy or special care zones in South Korea since 19 February, even if you do not have symptoms

other parts of mainland China or South Korea, Hong Kong, Japan, Macau, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan or Thailand in the last 14 days and have a cough, high temperature or shortness of breath (even if your symptoms are mild)

other parts of northern Italy (anywhere north of Pisa, Florence and Rimini), Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar or Vietnam since 19 February and have a cough, high temperature or shortness of breath (even if your symptoms are mild)

• We are not currently advising that individuals outside of the groups above should self-isolate.

What does self-isolating mean?

If you have been told to self-isolate, you will need to get to the place you are going to stay, once there remain indoors and avoid contact with other people.... this means that once you reach your residence you must:

• stay at home
• not go to work, school or public areas
• not use public transport like buses, trains, tubes or taxis
• avoid visitors to your home
• ask friends, family members or delivery services to carry out errands for you – such as getting groceries, medications or other shopping

It also says that if it is only you affected you should ideally self isolate from others you share your home with, including partner and children and not share a toilet/kitchen with them. Though I guess in many cases a whole family may well be asked to self isolate at the same time anyway.

12 extra cases- 35 in total in uk.

I would follow any official guidelines.

Again, who is going to do your shopping? It's not like breaking your leg and everyone (if you are lucky) rallies around.
Why are we kidding ourselves that other people are available to shop for us in every circumstance. What if those other people also need to self isolate?
Just weird and selfish.

I would, but I can do my job from home at a push. Some people would struggle to do this for pay reasons but I also have the feeling that culturally here people don't like being told what to do/'nanny state'/don't believe medical professionals, and just won't do it even if they should. Same people who won't wash their hands despite more publicity about that than ever before... I imagine plenty of people who would have to be forced to do it before they complied.

I would and it's not that different from how I live anyway as I work from home and there are days I don't see anyone, don't go to the shops etc.

But I imagine if I had a job with no sick pay or only statutory sick pay and had no savings, my answer may be different if it meant not getting paid for half a month...

If it was the official advice, then yes I would.

It wouldn’t be practical for me to completely self isolate (someone needs to look after my children) but if I didn’t have young kids then obviously I would.

A couple of weeks at home with a pile of books and Netflix wouldn't be so bad.

And as for shopping, the official advice is that it's fine to get a supermarket or take away delivery as long as it's left at your door and you don't have close contact with the delivery person.

Who will shop for you? Do you have that sorted? Do they not get a say in whether they are free and able to do it? What if they have to self isolate?

I work and were not allowed to stay home, even if were ill. I haven’t been well this winter with a long standing condition & then a virus for 10 days so I’m up for 2 lots of disciplinery and would face being sacked for being off work therefore wouldn’t be able to