If these are the rules I'm not surprised it's spreading.

[islockdownoveryet]

This scenario happened.
Person A visited person B at the weekend .
Person A went to work Monday to Thursday in a office wearing a mask social distancing implanted but not always possible .
On Thursday person A found out person B tested positive for covid .
Person A went into isolation but has not had symptoms so can't get a test .
My thinking is person A may or may not be infected and may or may not pass onto others that she had been in contact since the weekend.
None of these people can get a test unless they display symptoms and according to government website person A doesn't need to self isolate because it as more than 48 hours since seeing person B and him getting tested .
Now this may be correct but if person B had the virus at the weekend potentially person A could have it but not have symptoms and could of passed it onto anyone else during this week before she found out , so if this is correct no wonder the virus is spreading .
I understand there has to be a time limit and it must be 48 hours for a reason or am I really overthinking all this ?

It all depends when Person B first had symptoms. If that was more than 48 hrs after Person A was with them, it's practically impossible that Person A was infected.

Yes, in this case it could be sensible. However there are rules which are nuts. In school, for eg, you can have one sibling isolating but not others. And teachers, who are shut in the rooms with the infected children and do come within 2m because the rooms are too small not to, never have to isolate unless they get symptoms themselves.

It should be 48 hours prior to symptoms, not 48 hours prior to test? So if B started symptoms on Monday or Tuesday, then yes A would have to isolate. I’d say that’s likely given that it takes at least a couple of days to get a test booked and the results back?

Yeah I understand but is it impossible?
Especially when we hear that so many don't have symptoms.
I get the risk is a lot lower but is it impossible?

Yeah I agree it should be 48 hours prior to symptoms.