Do I REALLY have to self isolate?

[BusyBB]

So I got a notification from track and trace app to isolate for 10 days.

Called work, a care home where we always wear masks, and have had a test on site. One of my close colleagues has tested positive, but the day that she had tested didn't tally up with the days I had been told to isolate for. If the days did tally up, I would be able to go to work and ignore the message to self isolate.

But guess what, the day I last saw her (two days before she tested) does tally up with how many days i have to isolate for!

I haven't been anywhere else except to see my dad (support bubble, who hasnt tested positive) and occasionally in the shop, but would not have been within two meters of some one for 15 minutes and always wearing a mask.

So am I being unreasonable to think I shouldn't have to isolate if my test comes back negative?

Yanbu. This kind of “it doesn’t mean me” is why the virus has spread the way it has.

You wouldn't bother.
Well that's why we are still in this position

@Orangeblossom7777

Under the circumstances of working with vulnerable old people you'd think that would be the one place people would be ultra careful

I heard they are only recently doing routine testing in care workers- scary really

As per pps

Hospital staff and care staff would be in very short supply if they were isolating due to contact. The OP is asking about if her test comes back negative.

My DD works in NHS they are told not to use the app at work otherwise they will all get texts to self isolate. My niece works in a care home, same rules apply, all staff and residents are tested weekly. Only the staff member who has symptoms or a positive test has to self isolate but no one else does, if a resident tests positive the staff don’t self isolate.

How would hospitals and care homes run if all staff had to self isolate every time someone tests positive? They have to rely on PPE and good practice.

@BessieSurtees

My DD works in NHS they are told not to use the app at work otherwise they will all get texts to self isolate. My niece works in a care home, same rules apply, all staff and residents are tested weekly. Only the staff member who has symptoms or a positive test has to self isolate but no one else does, if a resident tests positive the staff don’t self isolate.

How would hospitals and care homes run if all staff had to self isolate every time someone tests positive? They have to rely on PPE and good practice.

Exactly. Honestly puzzled people don’t see this.

Whether her test comes back negative is a bit irrelevant I think. I THINK the question is whether the alert from the app is related to her colleague (in which case she does not have to isolate as her workplace setting has advised that the PPE is sufficient), or another contact, BUT as she hasn't been in contact with anyone else, there is no reason to suppose it is a contact outside of the workplace, which would be the only trigger for her to isolate.

People really need to understand that the general advice is NOT APPLICABLE to people working in health care settings. It says it ON THE ADVICE.

We're told to turn the app off at work (hospital).

I've had a number of colleagues test positive but have been told by our managers that we don't have to isolate unless we've been in contact without wearing ppe (ffp 2 surgical mask).

When I tested positive for COVID, I didn't have the app. I downloaded it as instructed by the text messages from T&T and out the code in they provided. It told me to self isolate from the day I downloaded the app, and not the day I had the test, which was three days before. Perhaps the work colleagues app did the same, told her to isolate from the day she logged the positive test, and not from the test date.

From NHS website; the relevant sentence is the last one....

What is meant by a ‘contact’
A ‘contact’ is a person who has been close to someone who has tested positive for COVID-19 anytime from 2 days before the person was symptomatic up to 10 days from onset of symptoms (this is when they are infectious to others). For example, a contact can be:

people who spend significant time in the same household as a person who has tested positive for COVID-19
sexual partners
a person who has had face-to-face contact (within one metre), with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19, including:
being coughed on
having a face-to-face conversation within one metre
having skin-to-skin physical contact, or
contact within one metre for one minute or longer without face-to-face contact
a person who has been within 2 metres of someone who has tested positive for COVID-19 for more than 15 minutes
a person who has travelled in a small vehicle with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19 or in a large vehicle or plane near someone who has tested positive for COVID-19
Where an interaction between 2 people has taken place through a Perspex (or equivalent) screen, this would not be considered sufficient contact, provided that there has been no other contact such as any of those indicated above.

Contacts of a person who has tested positive for COVID-19 need to self-isolate at home because they are at risk of developing symptoms themselves in the next 14 days and could spread the virus to others before the symptoms begin

If you are a contact of someone who has tested positive for COVID-19, then you will be notified by the NHS Test and Trace service via text message, email or phone. If you are notified, please follow the guidance in this document closely.

If you have not been notified that you are a contact, this means you do not need to self-isolate and should follow the general guidance, for example, social distancing, hand-washing, and covering coughs and sneezes.

This guidance does not include health care workers and others working in health and social care settings, who should follow separate guidance.

Link to previous (Gov not NHS, sorry)
www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-for-contacts-of-people-with-possible-or-confirmed-coronavirus-covid-19-infection-who-do-not-live-with-the-person/guidance-for-contacts-of-people-with-possible-or-confirmed-coronavirus-covid-19-infection-who-do-not-live-with-the-person

I work in a London hospital and we have been told if we wear masks all the time we don't have to self isolate, also we have to switch the app off at work.

"Only the staff member who has symptoms or a positive test has to self isolate but no one else does, if a resident tests positive the staff don’t self isolate.

How would hospitals and care homes run if all staff had to self isolate every time someone tests positive? They have to rely on PPE and good practice."

Is there good practice in this pandemic? It still seems to run like wild fire through some care homes.

I wish people would actually read the thread instead of posting knee jerk 'horrified' responses to the OP.

As I mentioned earlier, my daughter is ward sister for a Covid ward. Every patient is positive for Covid. As someone else pointed out, if nurses had to isolate like the general public, she'd only be able to work one shift every fortnight.
My daughter wears an FF2 mask and visor at all times, plus apron and gloves that are changed after every interaction with a patient. This is deemed by infection control to be enough, along with the usual hospital level handwashing etc, for isolation not to be deemed necessary.

If care home staff are also masked, aproned and gloved (and given that they don't generally have every resident positive for the virus) I would imagine that they are covered by the same guidance.

Indeed a friend of mine is a nurse wearing a mask the whole time and unofficially, at work, unless they have symptoms, they are basically not self isolating because if they had to take 2 weeks out all the time cancer patients would basically not be treated

@Aridane

No, you don’t have to self isolate. The law doesn’t apply to you 🙄

Poor care home residents

Apparently it doesn't. Yet the guy I spoke to whilst trying register my Covid test told me that if track and trace tell you to isolate listen them. I've actually refused to go to work during my 10 days isolation. PPE or not I don't think it's worth the risk or fair on my colleagues or the elderly people I care for, for me to go potentially spreading Covid round. My OH had it last week. We've been in close contact in confined space in my car with no ventilation and swapped saliva (obviously before he was ill with it) I've actually lost my holiday because I've refused to go to work which will mean I'll be fucked again next month with Xmas and stuff. Come Tuesday or Wednesday I'm completely out of food too

@Lozz22 yours is an entirely different situation. You've been in contact with someone Covid positive, in your own house, neither of you wearing PPE. Of course you isolate.

OP 'might' have been in contact with someone with Covid (though it might just be a phone proximity issue) when masked, gowned and gloved, in an environment that is excluded from the usual guidance.

@saraclara Exactly! Which is what I told work but they were insistent that I was able to work still. I've had symptoms but tested negative but I still aren't going anywhere until my isolation period is up. Plus I'm not sure if I've had a false negative from not doing the test properly

@Greysparkles

Oh dear.

Some people seem unable to read the whole thread, or have any understanding that the rules inside health care settings differ from normal social interactions.

Oh deary dear.

Yes many of us don't work in health care so would have no need to know the guidelines...

Much MORE worrying that the OP works in health care and yet needs to ask on MN ...

@BusyBB

It seems that really ALL my colleagues should be isolating then, but not all of us have downloaded the app! Feel like I've tried to do the right thing but now ending up missing out on pay because of it!

Well if you've all had contact with her, then yes, you all should really.

@Gwenhwyfar

"Only the staff member who has symptoms or a positive test has to self isolate but no one else does, if a resident tests positive the staff don’t self isolate.

How would hospitals and care homes run if all staff had to self isolate every time someone tests positive? They have to rely on PPE and good practice."

Is there good practice in this pandemic? It still seems to run like wild fire through some care homes.

That’s somewhat insulting. Of course care home staff use incredibly good practice especially at the moment. Do you not think we care deeply about preventing the virus killing the residents we care deeply for?

Morning all.
Wow what a lot of comments!

I'm glad not everyone thinks I'm an idiot for questioning my employer telling me I have to self isolate. I will pause the app in future but I didn't know anything about this, my employer certainly didn't mention it, and I only downloaded the app when asked to do so to check in somewhere before lockdown (slimming world). I didn't read through all the instructions on the app.

We have very good standards at our place of work. This is evidenced by not ONE of our residents testing positive throughout the whole of this epidemic.

I feel like I am letting my team (and key resident) down by not being there, as my negative result came through yesterday, but I copied my manager into the email I sent to the covid officer about why the days do add up and that I havent had contact with anything else. That's all I can do. Oh, and speak to my colleagues so they can cover everything I need to do for my key resident.

I will stay at home. I put my tree up last night and I have a shopping delivery booked. I will just try to make the most of time at home.

Thank you to all who have given helpful comments!

"That’s somewhat insulting."

It's insulting to say that Covid is still running through care homes? Are you denying it then?
I don't doubt your efforts, but fast transmission is still going on obviously.

@Gwenhwyfar

"That’s somewhat insulting."

It's insulting to say that Covid is still running through care homes? Are you denying it then?
I don't doubt your efforts, but fast transmission is still going on obviously.

No. It's insulting to say (as you did) Is there good practice in this pandemic?

@sophandbridge

The NHS website is sadly misleading as that is not what the legislation says on Track and Trace (Test and Trace is a different matter). The legislation actually specifically exempts the app.

I get that HCPs would like people to isolate. I also would like that. But it is also important that people understand the law and how it applies to them and are not misinformed by public authorities or HCPs.

Being notified by the app does not place a legal duty on people to isolate. You are however required to isolate if you are told to do so by Test and Trace, or by an NHS or public health professional.