Risk - contact with close contact of positive case

[Daisyandbertie]

What’s the risk? DH works in an office and sits within two meters of a colleague who is a close contact of a positive case. Colleague had prolonged indoor contact with no social distancing on Saturday and husband spent the whole day on Monday sitting at a desk facing his colleague two meters away. He wore a mask for some of the day, colleague didn’t. How much risk do you think he’s at and do you think we should isolate him within our household?

Zero if your DH's colleague tests negative.
I read somewhere that transmission within households is only about 20% or 30%. So can't be higher than that, and your DH doesn't even know if his colleague had/has it.

The colleague couid be incubating it, and as he wasn't in a mask then being within 2 m indoors for several hours could be enough to pass it on (if he is brewing it up and it had built up to a high enough level for him to,be shedding it).

People are usually infectious about 2 days before onset of symptoms.

So yes, if not too onerous, distancing from DH would be prudent, especially if anyone in the household is in a higher risk group. And the responsible thing for him to do is to be absolutely meticulous about distancing wherever he is (and minimising non-essential activity es)

Presumably the colleague is now off work and in isolation? And will inform workplace if they come down with it too? Or is PHE/equivalent already involved? If so, their advice is the authoritative version

Is colleague now isolating? Depends if he gets symptoms and then it depends how long before symptoms that your dh was last in contact. Test and trace looks at people that were in close contact in the 48 hours before symptoms

Thank you for your replies. Colleague is now isolating. Decided that we’ll isolate DH upstairs, as much as is practical, lots of extra work for me with two little ones! @lljkk that’s reassuring re the figures for household transmission, as he had much better measures in place at work than in the average household. He will avoid contact with anyone until we have an idea if his colleague gets symptoms, as would hate to pass it on and we’ll be careful too. We are now at 48 hours post last contact so fingers crossed his colleague remains well and symptom free. Frustrated as we’ve been so careful and his colleague was always going to be our weakest point as he doesn’t follow any of the rules. Shows the part we all play in reducing spread.

Some chance but probably not that much as colleague probably not at the infectious stage yet even if he was infected on Saturday.

Thanks yes I’m hoping it was too early to transmit even if he has picked it up. Colleague is still feeling well 72 hours since last contact so I’m hoping my husband won’t have picked it up.