This contact tracing thing?

[Inoneminute]

Have I understood correctly.

If I have a positive test, someone from the government will contact me and ask me for details of those I've been in contact with in previous days?

How many days?

I wouldn't necessarily know, for example, who I've sat near on the bus.

If I do give details, these people then have to take 14 days off work, probably on SMP or worse if SE. I'm not sure I could do that to people I'd only had relatively short or distant contact with. Could you? Or maybe I wouldn't need to? What does "contact" mean?

I am baffled by the system and, for now at least, will not be downloading the app. Nobody at all seems able to explain it at all coherently and every time some government minister tries then I end up even more confused and feel like I am just glazing over.

It seems to rely heavily on people who have smartphones. I do, as do most people I know, but I do have family who don't, and who don't have computers of any sort either.

Theres no app yet as thatsgoinf developed. Details are here www.gov.uk/guidance/nhs-test-and-trace-how-it-works

But it seems to involve you being contacted if you test positive for coronavirus. You need to provide contact details of all people you have had close contact with (less than 2m for more than 15 minutes) 2 days before symptoms and 7 days after. Given your meant to self isolate first 7 days with symptoms then the list if people for after symptoms start should only be those you live with. For anyone else you should be 2m away anyway.

Its flawed as you're not going to know everyone you had close contact with (you could be on a packed train for 20 minutes every morning), we have been repeatedly told that people are contagious up to 14 days before symptoms show so I'm not sure what good 2 days of information is and as many have pointed out, many wont want to hand this information out. I just presume the number of people you spend more than 15 minutes less than 2m away from is going to be small and this is a good reason to keep it that way!

So the people who have to go out to work and presumably have a higher risk of catching the virus, will have to self-isolate on SSP and try and survive on that - possibly several times.

And the people who are on furlough and much more able to SD - apart from their social lives - are earning 80-100% of their wage and not working?

That doesn't seem fair to me?

sleepyhead -I guess there'll be a tension between, on one hand "you reported me as a contact and I lost my income"

and "you didn't report me as a contact and I caught the virus and spread it to my family and we've all lost our income" (or worse case scenario are severely affected/someone dies)

I get the gist of what you're what you're saying there but if you catch the virus you never know who infected you. Therefore you won't know who it was who did or did not do any reporting.

From gov.uk website:

People who have had close contact with someone who has coronavirus

"If you do not have symptoms, you must not seek a test , as the scientific evidence shows that the test may not be able to detect whether you have the virus

It is crucial that you complete your 14-day self-isolation period if you’ve been identified as a contact, even if you get a negative test result This is because you may have the virus, but it cannot yet be detected by a test, so you could unknowingly spread the virus if you leave the house."

So no symptoms = no test
Negative test result = stay confined inside for 14 days anyway

@MrsFogi

I will not be cooperating with this until DC is sacked.

How considerate of your fellow humans. Cheers, gold star for you. I sincerely hope you don’t catch corona for all our sakes.

Aside from that, I don’t think those in power understand what the work culture is actually like for swathes of the population. Sickness of any kind has been frowned on for decades and the attitude has always been ‘if you can walk you can work. Suck it up’. It’s a massive cultural shift to expect employees to pressure their employers into complying with when job security is a particular concern for most at the moment.

I think there has to be some consequence for employers whose policies make it difficult for people to comply.

Without the app you can only give the contact details of people you know. This isn't going to be about strangers you were on the bus with, you'll be reporting work colleagues and family/friends.

People will know who in their circle is ill and will be able to make a pretty good guess as to who is "responsible" for them being isolated for 14 days.

Hopefully if we're vigilant with social distancing and hygiene we can lower our risks of putting ourselves in a position where we might have to isolate or make others isolate.