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If I have symptoms can dh still go out for exercise/food?

158 replies

BreathlessCommotion · 11/04/2020 10:57

Firstly, please be nice. I feel bloody awful, hard to breathe, everything hurts etc. Please don't call me stupid or selfish.

Secondly I need the actual advice/rules, not the MN opinion.

I have symptoms - cough, difficulty breathing, aching, exhausted, temp. So I am isolating in one bedroom. I have dh and 2 dc. And a dog. Are they still allowed to go out for one walk a day, obviously making sure social distancing (easy as never see anyone where we dog walk).

I thought they could (based on a friend who had to do it a few weeks ago). But then thought maybe I'd read different and now in confused.

OP posts:
Thread gallery
8
PurpleDaisies · 11/04/2020 15:12

Was it definitely just done on Thursday because the screenshots and when other people checked were before lockdown took place.

There was a thread discussing this on April 4th with this screen shot posted...

If I have symptoms can dh still go out for exercise/food?
PurpleDaisies · 11/04/2020 15:13

I looked at the nhs website then. That was well after the lockdown started.

LittleCabbage · 11/04/2020 15:17

@Quartz2208

did you check after the announcement on March 23rd because that would have been a public announcement

I'm sure I did, because I kept checking back throughout the first week to make sure I'd covered everything. I distinctly remember that the gov.uk website was not clear one way or another about exercise for self-isolators, but the NHS website clearly said it was fine, with at least 2m distancing.

Wowthisisreal · 11/04/2020 15:21

Actually I know someone who has been told by 111 that she has Covid-19 and her instructions specifically state that she and her family must self isolate. However the definition she has received of self-isolation is:

"- not leave your home for any reason, other than to exercise once a day - but stay at least 2 meters from other people.

  • not to go out to buy food or collect medicine - order them by phone or online, or ask someone else to drop them off at your home.
  • not have visitors, such as friends and family, in your home.

You can use your garden if you have one."

This is official NHS advice received this week. Anything is else is hearsay or old advice

PurpleDaisies · 11/04/2020 15:22

When was that wow? It appears that the advice changed on April 9th.

PurpleDaisies · 11/04/2020 15:25

Anything is else is hearsay or old advice.

Surely your whole post is hearsay unless you were with your friend when she got the advice? Confused

Have a look at the NHS site now. The part about exercising with symptoms/when self isolating has changed.

Wowthisisreal · 11/04/2020 15:26

@purpledaisies I was sent the screenshot on the 6th but I've checked and I believe she is still getting daily updates saying the same thing.

Sounds like there is a contradiction to the gov website and the NHS live updates?

Wowthisisreal · 11/04/2020 15:26

@purpledaisies not hearsay she sent me a screenshot!

PurpleDaisies · 11/04/2020 15:27

The advice changed on the 9th. It turns out that you’ve got the old advice. Wink

Wowthisisreal · 11/04/2020 15:28

Just checking now on the website. Does look like the website has changed!

Will see if she is still getting old advice! Apologies Smile

PurpleDaisies · 11/04/2020 15:28

Here’s the updated version...

Do not leave your home if you have symptoms of coronavirus (COVID-19) or live with someone who does.

This is called self-isolation.

If you are self-isolating, you must:

not leave your home for any reason – if you need food or medicine, order them by phone or online, or ask someone else to drop them off at your home
not have visitors, such as friends and family, in your home
You can use your garden, if you have one. Any exercise should be taken at home.

PurpleDaisies · 11/04/2020 15:30

No worries wow. I told someone they were fine to exercise outside their hone with symptoms yesterday and when I went to the nhs website to copy the advice found it had changed. I withdrew my misleading post so no one got confused. You might want to do the same.

Wowthisisreal · 11/04/2020 15:30

I guess that ties in with the timing of the government review. Very interesting that's not got much press and I wonder how those who were 'diagnosed' are meant to see this new advice unless they are told!

BlackLambAndGreyFalcon · 11/04/2020 15:45

Fuck! I cannot believe they changed the guidelines without announcing it! We started self isolating on 4 April as dh has a temperature. We checked the guidelines then and it did clearly state that the rest of the household could exercise outside of the home as long as they remained two metres apart from others. DH hasn't been anywhere but dd and I have been out for social distancing short walks/bike ride (not every day) as I thought in line with the guidelines! Now I discover that they changed 2 days ago. You think that they could have announced it at one of the press conferences or something if they were changing the guidelines. Or have a note on the website that you should check back daily in case they change the guidelines.

On a related note we were planning next week that if DH is recovered and symptom-free that he would be able to go to the supermarket for our food shop as he was the original sufferer and would have done 7 days self isolation. Is this still allowed under the new guidelines?

Feel really bad for breaking the guidelines inadvertantly as we'd tried so hard to follow them all, but honestly had no idea that they had changed!

cologne4711 · 11/04/2020 15:58

The safe distance from someone running has now been shown to be 10m. That's why Parisians have now been banned from running during the day

That's not the reason, the rule was changed before that "study" was released, which was only one study and isn't official advice.

The reason was apparently that too many people were out in the day.

I am really shocked that people were being told it was ok to go out with symptoms here though. There was a thread where someone was saying she'd got symptoms after colliding with a runner on a corner, and I thought " of course you didn't" and now I'm not so sure!

browzingss · 11/04/2020 15:58

No

cologne4711 · 11/04/2020 15:59

There had been loads of threads on here with people asking if they could go out and a distinction was made between those self-isolating with symptoms who had to stay indoors/at home and those self-isolating for their own protection, who could go out with caution. Are we sure we're not confusing the two categories?

Allgirlmum · 11/04/2020 16:01

Stay home jeeze get a home delivery for food asking them to leave it on your doorstep

BlackLambAndGreyFalcon · 11/04/2020 16:02

Just to be clear, in my household the person with symptoms (DH) was not going out. The non-sympotomatic household members were following the previous guidelines which said that exercise at a distance of 2 metres once a day (although we didn't actually go out every day) was permitted and until I read this thread I did not realised it had changed 2 days ago as there has been zero publicity!

LittleCabbage · 11/04/2020 16:08

There had been loads of threads on here with people asking if they could go out and a distinction was made between those self-isolating with symptoms who had to stay indoors/at home and those self-isolating for their own protection, who could go out with caution. Are we sure we're not confusing the two categories?

I am 100% sure the advice I read was for households self-isolating due to symptoms.

BreathlessCommotion · 11/04/2020 16:11

@Allgirlmum did you read my OP? My main question is about exercise and walking the dog (and the children!). I know that he can't go to the supermarket, this is a out exercise in the open. Which I have an answer for now.

OP posts:
LangClegsInSpace · 11/04/2020 16:43

Wayback machine page for April 7 (most recent snapshot):

If you live with others and you or one of them have symptoms that may be caused by coronavirus, then household members must stay at home and not leave your house for 14 days (more information in the ending self-isolation section below). If possible, you should not go out even to buy food or other essentials, other than exercise, and in that case at a safe distance from others. The 14-day period starts from the day when the first person in your house became ill.

<a class="break-all" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200407172816/www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-stay-at-home-guidance/stay-at-home-guidance-for-households-with-possible-coronavirus-covid-19-infection" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">web.archive.org/web/20200407172816/www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-stay-at-home-guidance/stay-at-home-guidance-for-households-with-possible-coronavirus-covid-19-infection

Goatymcgoaty · 11/04/2020 16:48

Guidance is changing like the wind. Take the “driving to exercise” topic. At first it was deemed ok. Then it was banned. Now, if you look on gov.uk it doesn’t commit either way, just asks you to “stay local” but “don’t make any unnecessary journeys”. If that isn’t open to interpretation I don’t know what is.

LangClegsInSpace · 11/04/2020 16:52

Of course if they really didn't want people to catch it they wouldn't be telling us all to isolate with the rest of our household. I notice another change since April 7 is that they've got rid of this:

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 overall amount of infection the household could pass on to others in the community