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?

How does it work at places like visitor attractions- theme parks and National Trust properties?

If one person who was there is positive the next day, does everyone there have to isolate- even though there were a thousand people there that day and most wouldn’t have had contact with the infected person?

What if it’s a member of customer facing staff who tests positive?

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

Bar service wasn't meant to be allowed at all, only table service! Why are pubs not following, and enforcing, the rules?

Lots of places are still doing bar ordering - Five Guys are for example. Coffee shops etc. You give your name and number at the door and then are allocated a table and then go up to order!

@WishUponAStar88

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

Well that’s what I thought but surely if the PP who was sat well away from everyone had queued at the bar for a drink it would have been less than 15 mins. 🤷‍♀️

When my friend got it they went back 14 days

Why on earth did they go back 14 days? Its supposed to be anyone the positive person had close contact with in the 48 hours prior to symptoms starting.

@napody

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.

That seems the most sensible but I've yet to come across it. Possibly two places which we booked online would have that info, but others absolutely no way.

Bar service wasn't meant to be allowed at all, only table service! Why are pubs not following, and enforcing, the rules?

Admittedly I’ve only been in 4 pubs since lockdown ended, but only one of those had table service, and that was a Hungry Horse that still required you to order at the bar and then sit down and wait for the drink/food to be delivered. The other 3 simply took your name and phone number at the entrance, and join a socially distanced queue for the bar - everything else was unchanged.

Ahh, I’ve just checked the guidance:

“Adjusting service approaches to minimise staff contact with customers. Indoor table service must be used where possible, alongside further measures such as assigning a single staff member per table. Outdoor table service should also be encouraged, although customers are permitted to stand outside if distanced appropriately. Where bar or counter service is unavoidable, preventing customers from remaining at the bar or counter after ordering”

My bold. So it’s not a rule, just guidance.

I’ve been in quite a few pubs, every single one has been table service & about half have been order via app

I'm finding this really worrying. I went in a garden centre tearoom yesterday, I was inside just long enough to give my phone no and ask for a table outside. Table service but I came back in to pay at the counter which took about a minute as well. So two minutes in total but the worry of being contacted. I really have to go to work tomorrow. It is going to completely put me off going out especially once the weather is not good enough for sitting out. But I want to support these businesses. It must be horrendous for them if a customer gets a positive test.

@SoManyActivities not sure but they asked her who she had been in contact with for 14 days, I’d seen her the day before her symptoms started. It took track and trace 4 days to contact her and then I got the text.
I already knew as she told me the day she went for her test, once positive she was told to isolate for 10days yet I was told to isolate for 14. My text even had the date to isolate until which was 14 days since I saw her
My understanding is you are infectious just for a few days before symptoms show do no idea why they asked her for 14 days when she did the test. She got it from her gym, track and trace confirmed there were several other cases there. Nobody she had been around has had it or since got it
We had been for a bite to eat in a pub, sat outside. We completed the online form they asked us to. The pub stayed open. The gym closed

I wondered this. I went to Costa alone yesterday. Registered on the site. I was sat away from anyone else. There were only a handful of us in there and I was the opposite side of the cafe to all the others. When I ordered and walked through to enter/leave I wore a mask. I was in contact for about 30 seconds while wearing a mask.

@FredaFox that's weird. According to the BBC, its 48 hours before symptoms, which is what I had previously understood it to be as well. Someone is contagious for 14 days before they start symptoms, they haven't even got it 14 days before they start symptoms?

I hope that you are OK and feeling OK?

Sorry, that should say someone ISN'T contagious for 14 days before symptoms obviously!

@SoManyActivities yes I’m fine, I did do a test in the end as I’m a carer for my vulnerable mother and have no other family who can tend to her and I was negative thankfully
If I’m honest my friend and I both said the experience was a shambles, I called the covid line the second she was positive and their advice differed from the advice when I ordered a test and different again to what was said to my friend so neither of us felt they knew what they were doing tbh. A lot of mixed messages
My friend still has covid a month later but she’s fine now but still got mild symptoms, just can’t shake it off

Given up now with any where that does test & trace now.

Went to a coffee chain the other day and had to do this - then had people who had just ordered a coffee walk past where we were sat with no masks who do not have to login to test & trace - pointless excise.

Back to the sandwich shop now where you do not have to play this game.

@FredaFox I understand why they wouldn't tell you who tested positive but did they at least tell you where you had had contact?

@MaggieFS I know who it was, my friend. She told me as soon as she went for a test. Track and trace didn’t contact her for 4 days to go through her whereabouts, I then got the text I posted. That’s all you get. I was lucky, I knew who it was. After her call with track and trace she told me she had given them my number.
I know we went to a pub together the day before she started with symptoms

Well that's the thing isn't it. You are going to contact everyone yourself rather than wait and give their number to T&T.

@Bagelsandbrie

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

Starting to think you’re right!

A couple of places I've been also note down the time you arrived (and assume online check in does the same) so if someone who was in the bar 5-6pm tests positive then the fact we were there 2-3pm means we wouldn't be affected?

I work in a library. We ask everyone visiting to write down their contact details and their time of arrival and departure.