App says to isolate but no phone call?

[Unrespectedadultchild]

By chance today when I went to scan my track and trace app at Starbucks I discovered that I should be self isolating!

It says I need to self isolate for 11 days ending on Friday the 13th at midnight. Which is fine except counting back the only place I was on the day of exposure (14 days prior) was work and no one else I was with that day has been told to self isolate just me!

I also haven’t had any contact telling me to isolate just by chance I happened to see it on the app when I opened it, is this correct or am I part of some bizarre scam? I’m at home just in case but surely someone should have phoned me to tell me to isolate!

The app is separate to track and trace I believe so you won’t necessarily get a phone call. The app will have determined you were close enough to someone to need to isolate. Hope you stay well :)

DS got the notification beginning of October and tested positive. It took 6 days from the time that he had the notification before he got a call, then another two days before DH and I (whose details he gave them) got a call! So I wouldn't depend on receiving the call in a timely fashion, although I thought things had improved in the last month.

Gosh you’d think the whole system would match up better than this!

If I hadn’t gone to Starbucks decided to sit and enjoy my coffee before shopping and heading into work I would have been walking around potentially accidentally spreading it I wouldn’t have even known!

There are other threads about the timing of the isolation periods, I understand you can't assume it was a straight 14 days beforehand.

Does the app not actually send you a notification? I didn't realise it relied on you checking into a venue

DOes the app not alert you? I don't check mine, I just assumed it would send some kind of alert!

I think it is meant to alert you! I’m just either rubbish at technology or for some reason mine didn’t ping to let me know! It’s possible that it’s only just come up I guess if someone received their test this morning?

The point of the app is that it is anonymous. Test and Trace (the manual tracking service) have no access to the app data and therefore can't call you as they don't know who you are. But Yes, it's concerning that it didn't alert you- I assumed that some notification would go off on my phone if I was required to self isolate. I don't manually check the app unless I need to check in to somewhere.

There have been ghost notifications which disappear. Is it one of those? And yes, it's supposed to notify you.

Definitely not a ghost notification, it’s there in red saying I have 11 days of isolation left

So if it’s separate from track and trace I likely haven’t been in contact with anyone then?
Worried I shouldn’t have told work now as I’ve read I won’t be paid for this time off as it’s not from NHS track and trace

The app has picked up that you've (or your phone) been in close contact with someone who has subsequently tested positive with COVID. The likelihood is that it is someone that you don't know as they haven't told you yourself and they haven't given your details to test and trace as they don't know you (although t&t are very behind with contact tracing so it is possible that a phone call is still coming - someone posted on another thread that it had taken them 9 days to tell her that her DH had tested positive! - but they likelihood is that if it was someone that you knew who had your contact details to give to t&t that they would have told you themselves by now).

I was really surprised when I tested positive, that I had to upload everywhere I'd been. I thought that was the whole point of scanning QR codes.

According to my app. I'm still under house arrest. But track and trace let Me out last Saturday.

OP you don't get a phone call on the back of the app picking up an exposure - sure the app doesn't know who you are! You should have got a notification to alert you but perhaps you have notifications switched off on your phone? The app is completely separate to t&t - it seems to be taking a long time for people to understand this?

I wouldn't hold your breath on t&t anyway - I got a positive result on Sat and haven't heard from them. That is the whole point of the app - an automatic system that doesn't rely on staffing.

‘So if it’s separate from track and trace I likely haven’t been in contact with anyone then?
Worried I shouldn’t have told work now as I’ve read I won’t be paid for this time off as it’s not from NHS track and trace’

No the app has determined you’ve been in contact with someone who has Covid for a sustained period. You DO need to isolate. It’s separate to track and trace which is contact from people you know who test positive.

They may cross over but it may be that this is a stranger. If the app says isolate... you isolate!

I think there is an issue around money but that’s a separate issue that the Government have yet again failed on...

You're not being daft about not getting a notification btw.
I looked by chance at the app and discovered I should have been isolating. It didn't send any kind of helpful push notification In fact I looked under phone settings and the app had been checking only very infrequently for updates (skipped 3 days for example). So it really wasn't working very well at all on my phone.
Just to be clear- you have legal duty to isolate if contacted by test and trace, but no such duty relating to the app.

How can that be right the ap is made by nhs test and trace surely they are one and the same ?

I would expect it a legal duty to isolate if you have been told to by the ap.

The problem is that so many people were concerned about privacy and "didn't want to be tracked by the government". You can't have it both ways - either the app is completely anonymous which satisfies privacy concerns, but then this of course means that isolation notifications can't be tracked or enforced.

I do understand about the isolation payment and I think that's very tough, particularly as the government obviously wants people to self isolate if notified. As you can't input a positive test without a code, surely this code could also be shared with those the app notifies enabling those who need to claim the payment to do so (or who need to prove for any other reason that they have been required to self isolate. Obviously it would need to be done in a way to ensure that it couldn't be linked back to the original person who entered the test. I'm not an app developer, but surely something like this would be possible to develop?

I think that it would be very helpful for someone in Government to go on TV and fully explain both NHS Test & Trace (manual system) and the app as there is so much confusion out there.

The app is separate from test and trace as the app uses Bluetooth between phones that have the app so you won't know who tested positive and test and trace won't know either.
You would have thought there would have been some sort of alert though