Does the isolation timer reset?

[ExchangedCat]

If one of you gets a cough or fever and the household self-isolates, does the timer reset if another household member gets sick, say 5 days in?

I think that is why it has been changed to 14 days, because of that reason.

Yes, that's what got me thinking. But given you can catch it more than once and you don't know for sure you've got it unless you end up in hospital, I wasn't sure.

My oldest ds has had a cough for about 10 days, starting to improve slightly, youngest ds got a cough 5 days ago which got better after 2 days - should we be isolating for 14 from 10 days ago or 5 days ago? Really not sure

Following for anyone who knows for definite

I'm not sure what to do either. Youngest started coughing Saturday afternoon. It was the tail end of a cold. She's better now. I was planning on sticking to the advice that was in place when she started coughing, so keeping her off nursery this week. Then applying new advice if anyone else gets sick.

Well I was day 7 today. So does that mean I now have another week and the family are in for two!!!

@megcleary I would personally stick to the old advice if I were you, but mn may well shoot me down in flames!

Similar for me! I started a cough last Thursday after a few days of a sore throat. Was sent home from work and was due to go back this coming Thursday. Now do I keep dd off for 2 weeks and dh off work as well as well as me being off at least another week . I'm still coughing now but it's that dry tickly cough. I never got a fever and to me it was just a cold but I can't be 100% certain it wasn't Corona. This is so confusing

I think they mean 14 days from when the first person shows signs. So if you're on day 5 now everyone in the house needs to stay in for another 9 days. You were all exposed when person 1 was ill so you shouldn't need to restart the clock for person 2.

They explained it on the press conference:
If there's 2 in the household then from the point that second person shows symptoms you need another 7 days /complete the original 14 days, whichever is the longer.

Thanks myshinynewname - it's so easy to overthink all this. The guidance needs to be so much clearer

Thanks @Myshinynewname that makes sense . I started sore throat last Monday so that means another 7 days for our household

111.nhs.uk/Question/Navigation

If you live with other people, keep everyone at home for 14 days

The 14-day period starts from the day when the first person in the house became ill.

It is likely that people living within a household will infect each other or be infected already. Staying at home for 14 days will greatly reduce the spread of infection to others in the community.

If you still have a cough after 7 days, but your temperature is normal, you do not need to continue staying at home. A cough can last for several weeks after the infection has gone.