Are we supposed to stay at home now? Nobody will tell us! Positive tests.

[HappyMealWithLegs]

5 separate people at my husbands work tested positive for C19 yesterday. It's a factory so they are all in close contact during the day, in the canteens, the toilets, smoking areas, etc. The factory isn't closing, isn't having a deep clean, nothing. Just carrying on. Husband will have to keep going into work or not be paid.

I've been working throughout also, going into the office as there are only 3 of us there right now. Am I supposed to tell my bosses and stay at home now? Really don't know what to do.

How much close contact did your DH have with the people infected? Does he have any symptoms at all? Can he socially distance at work? If he has any symptoms he can apply for a covid test.

Thanks for replying.

He will have had relatively close contact every day. They share the same changing rooms, toilets, etc. He has no symptoms. He is going to stay away from people as much as possible. Worried that I have it and have no symptoms but could be now infecting my office, with more people due to return this week.

The government guidelines are to self-isolate if you have symptoms, so doesn’t apply. However, if you are concerned about infecting your colleagues, maybe have a word with your boss - they might prefer you to stay away.

Yes I thought I might do that PuzzledObserver. I can work from home if needed so maybe that's the answer. Thanks.

How soon do the tests pick up an infection? I know the incubation period until symptoms show can be up to 2 weeks (or maybe more) but he got tested now, would it work?

Even the general public can get tested now once they have symptoms, but I don't think you can before then - I wonder how much it would help, if cases like this could be determined one way or the other?

I don't know Bimbleberries. I think he should get a test, he did say he would try to find out today whether he could just rock up to a testing centre and see if they would do it.

You definitely can't just rock up to a testing centre. If you're displaying symptoms you can book a test online. Please don't just turn up to the test centre it doesn't work like that. I hope you, your husband and your family are all ok.

Doesn’t your DH’s place of work need to close for a deep clean?

Might be worth looking through the government’s health and safety guidance for the workplace.

www.gov.uk/guidance/working-safely-during-coronavirus-covid-19

You should definitely work from home if you're able to do that.

Seems a bit off that his workplace don't have to take any action though.

Sorry I know that’s no what you asked but I would be double checking that.

I thought that if you can work from home you should be doing so anyway, so it shouldn't be a problem for you to work at home at all.

Seems a bit off that his workplace don't have to take any action though

Honestly, it's awful. They have a history of treating their staff terribly though, coronavirus or no coronavirus He had been looking for a new job before all this started.

I didn't realise you could book a test online. Thanks, I will tell him to do that.

They'll only need to clean the area the person infected has been, its not a full factory clean. And it's a case of go in until symptoms develop and then book a test, if its positive then isolate. That's what factories have been told and is what our factory is doing if anyone tests positive.

You can only book a test on line if you have symptoms and if you do you shouldn't be at work. However with that number of people in one factory testing positive I would expect the local public health team to get involved.

The bosses attitude is appalling, if fact this much disregard for H&S is illegal. I wonder if your husband would have any recourse to personal injury law if he gets CV? From the sound of it the threat of legal action would be the only thing that would make them take their responsibility for H&S seriously. I work in H&S and my husband is a lawyer we were talking about this the other day. My husband said the discussion amongst the legal community is the difficulty in proofing where CV was contracted. I've since been chatting with another friend about this though, this friend happens to be a cell biologist and apparently them can (and have been) DNA/RNA sequencing the CV genome and can follow its path.

local public health team to get involved.
You would certainly hope so. Gov (and by extension local services) have been on the back foot all along with this though.

You should report his workplace immediately. They clearly aren't following 'Covid secure' guidelines.

You should report his workplace immediately
Agreed. Contact the HSE.

You should report his workplace immediately

Can we do that anonymously? I know it's a horrible selfish thing to say, but we can't afford for him to lose his job at the minute.

Yes.

www.hse.gov.uk/contact/index.htm?utm_source=hse.gov.uk&utm_medium=refferal&utm_campaign=contact&utm_content=home-page-info

Is there a union on site op? Another, and less confrontational solution might be to get a union involved. Your husband isn't going to be the only one with these concerns. The union rep needs to ask for an urgent meeting with boss and go in armed with solutions and let the boss know what they need to be doing.

There is no union, no.

I am going to report them later today. Thanks for the link.

It’s insane that he’s not having to self isolate. Sharing facilities, toilets handling the same things… sure fire recipe for transmission.