How does test and trace know if there has been close contact?

[MaggieFS]

Just wondering how it is decided who has to self isolate? If I go to a pub and sit at a table in the garden 20 metres from someone who later tests positive, the pub has my contact details but from what I can tell, no record of who sat where nor what time we were both there. Unless they are keeping greater records than I realise?

I always wondered this from the beginning. You could stay in the garden and not enter the building where the person with it was, staff bring food and drink out etc and not come into contact with them and still be contacted. As far as I am aware no extra details like sitting arrangements are taken, Well from the very few places I have been there most definitely hasn’t been a seating plan. 2 places haven’t even taken our details.

If I sit somewhere outside and don’t even enter the building at all I don’t scan the barcode.

I’m almost at the point where we will stop going to eat out, even if outside, as to me a 2 hour nice meal isn’t worth potentially staying home for 2 weeks with young kids.

@OverTheRainbow88

If I sit somewhere outside and don’t even enter the building at all I don’t scan the barcode.

I’m almost at the point where we will stop going to eat out, even if outside, as to me a 2 hour nice meal isn’t worth potentially staying home for 2 weeks with young kids.

What happens if you get Covid & haven’t scanned the barcode? It’s not just for your protection!

It's a fair point. I've no idea, tbh, but am interested to see if anyone else does.

Nobody seems to know what they are doing.
Staff just seem to take your phone number and no other explanation.
They only know a daily total of who has been there.

@W3dontdoduvets

I said if I don’t go inside, no one is going to get covid from me in the time they put a plate on a table I am sitting at. No difference to walking passed me in the street.

People who test positive are asked. Who did you sit with? How close? How long for? Were you wearing a mask? Etc. With the pub taking details I'm guessing if the person who tests positive was in a tightly packed bar and says it was heaving then it would be useful.

They don’t. A friend has just been contacted by the T&T people and as a result has to self isolate because she was in a pub at the same time as someone who has since tested positive - even though she explained to the caller that she and her partner were sat on their own, away from the main bar.

The fact that she was inside and the pub doesn’t offer phone ordering (meaning there is a possibility she was queueing for the bar at the same time), is enough for them.

This is why we haven't eaten out yet.

Someone in my gym has tested positive. The gym say they don’t need to contact anyone as the classes are marked out with spaces for each person ensuring social distancing. Which I understand, but what about in the changing rooms, or going up and down the stairs to the studio?

Maybe that’s because it would only be for a short period of time but then so is getting a drink at a bar?

Not sure if they’ve taken advice from PHE or decided this themselves.

Jacob I believe it’s close contact for more than 15minutes, it would be less than that in the changing room/ stair well etc

Does anyone know how far back they go?
So if someone tests positive, how far back do they check their contact?
A week or just a couple of days or further back?

@Rudolphian its 48 hours.

When my friend got it they went back 14 days

Along with the 'everyone using the same pen' to write down their contact details... complete farce.

Isn't the pub T&T thing more so they can keep an eye on outbreaks. So if several people test positive within a few days of each other and have that pub as a common link, then it suggests they may have caught it there. Clearly it can't be proved, but data patterns are important. That's why the new rules in some lockdown areas are related to homes, not pubs, because they can see from data where it's being transmitted. So it's important that T&T know where people have been in order to exclude them from restrictions as much as anything else.

No one has a clue what they’re doing, do they? It’s all just a “show” of doing the right thing.

Thanks for the replies. Sounds like it's pretty much what I though/feared. We've only been going out to eat on nice days where we can sit outside and definitely kept away from people but I think we might stop - really want to minimise our chances of ending up having to isolate for 14 days so it's just not worth it.

If they went back 14 days you wouldn’t have to isolate when contacted? Even if you live with someone that tests positive you only isolate for 14 days

I do wonder if a lot of people will be / have given fake details to avoid the whole self isolation thing. If they’re just taking a name and telephone number you could just literally make it up.

@Bagelsandbrie

Where we went on Friday we couldn’t sit down even outside until we received an email from them and pressed a confirmed button

Exactly what a PP said above, this is exactly why I won't be making another restaurant booking until this is over. I stayed home for 7 days and was bad enough - 14 days! Christ almighty.

I'll stick to cafes and coffee.

It must be different in different areas then. In Norwich if you eat out you’re just met by someone with a pen and a clipboard and you write your name and telephone number and then off you go sit down... By the way we are following the rules carefully, I’m in the clinically vulnerable group and was given a shielding letter etc but it seems like no one is paying any attention to any of it here.

It depends on the place you go. The smaller places I have been haven't asked for where we were sitting. Ones that we have pre booked know our table number so know where we were, larger places have asked for our table number. Every single place has asked for a time of the visit.

My local asks for table number and the time you arrived and left. So presumably theyd only give in the numbers of those who sat close to the infected person.