What happens in this situation

[Rosebel]

I'm on maternity leave so this doesn't affect me but I imagine the situation may arise again so wondering about the rules.
I work doing picking for home shopping and a woman on the department was contacted by T&T to say she'd been in contact with someone with the virus. She's gone home to try and get a test or if not to isolate for 14 days.
My question is what about the other workers in the department and all the customers she will have come in to contact with?
They can't close a whole department or supermarket down to deep clean. Would they shut the department (which will affect people who can't /don't want to shop)? What about all the customers?
I know most places close and deep clean if there is a case but are the rules different for supermarkets (and all essential establishment)?

Well firstly under the guidelines your colleague shouldn’t be seeking a test unless she has symptoms. If she doesn’t have symptoms then she’ll just have to wait out the 14 days in self isolation. If she develops symptoms and subsequently tests positive then track and trace rolls out to those people she has had close contact with. That might include colleagues but one would hope, not random members of the general public. One would also hope that supermarkets are regularly carrying out deep cleaning exercises and staff are working in a ‘Covid safe’ way anyway, which should be minimising the spread in workplaces.

Remember, just because she's been in contact with an infected person does not mean she'll definitely have it.

The woman who was contacted should only be isolating, not getting a test. Unless she gets symptoms herself, then she would need a test. No-one else needs to isolate unless she gets symptoms and then gets a positive test result.

The way I see it is that a line has got to be drawn somewhere and the country would come to a standstill if everyone isolated in this situation. This is why social distancing is important.

Your colleague is a 'contact' of the case and is required to self isolate for 14 days (from the last time she was in contact with the case).

There is no indication for a test. The reason why people who need them are struggling to get tests is because 'contacts' are dashing out and booking them as a way of getting a negative test and ending their isolation early.

You and fellow colleagues are not at risk (unless your colleague goes on to develop symptoms in which case she then becomes a case and you all become contacts)

I work doing picking for home shopping and a woman on the department was contacted by T&T to say she'd been in contact with someone with the virus. She's gone home to try and get a test or if not to isolate for 14 days.
My question is what about the other workers in the department and all the customers she will have come in to contact with?

Nobody should be within 2m of each other unnecessarily. If likely to need to be within 1m of someone everyone should be wearing masks.

This limits transmission risk and avoids everyone needing to isolate.

Simples. I

There's only so much space at work especially when returning and taking new trollies. I never see people distancing in the supermarket anymore, certainly not 1 or 2 metres apart.
I know the woman might be fine but my question is what if she is? Do you think they'd have to shut the department or the store as the pickers obviously go everywhere in store. They wear masks but not gloves as they'd have to be changed every time they picked up a new, item.

If she does turn out to have Covid then even with restricted social distancing it’s very unlikely she would have passed the virus onto a member of the general public as contact would have been limited to a few seconds at most? Unless she’s been going around coughing on customers and licking their shopping it should be fine. Her colleagues with whom she has been working for longer periods of time may be at greater risk and may have to self isolate.