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Having to self isolate as next door are positive

74 replies

Wwydiywm · 15/12/2020 18:38

Got a notification from the covid app today to self isolate, apparently I was in contact with someone on sunday, when I didn't leave the house!
As the app works on bluetooth, I'm assuming it's because next door neighbours (we share a wall) have tested positive, but I don't want to ask them as its prying!
Has anyone else had this happen, is it possible?

OP posts:
TheDailyCarbuncle · 15/12/2020 19:54

The app doesn't work. You can follow what it says if you like but there's no point in it and it won't make any difference to anything.

PhineaxRedux · 15/12/2020 19:54

Just ignore it, OP.

PinkSparklyPussyCat · 15/12/2020 19:57

I deleted the app. I live in a flat and have no intention of isolating if a neighbour tests positive. The only place I'm going regularly is the hairdressers and I fill out a form for test and trace.

cardswapping · 15/12/2020 20:00

It is a vicinity error from your app. The notification from the app is not binding as it is known to have this error.

saraclara · 15/12/2020 20:01

Don't embarrass your neighbour. They're entitled to their privacy. Just turn the app off. I had it on for all of a day before I realised that it only checked me into places and not out of them. I wasn't prepared to isolate because someone positive had been to the same cafe after I left.

StepintoChristmas29 · 15/12/2020 20:02

Track and trace is so unreliable. I’ve turned my contact tracing off on the app so it doesn’t track me. I don’t get close to people, wear masks, sanitise. I don’t feel the need for it for me!

Someone my partner works with was told to isolate them 10 minutes later said he didn’t have to because of a glitch.

Canyoncall · 15/12/2020 20:07

@medusawashere
My DHTB and I got an "alert" at the same time when we were indoors. Scared the crap out of me! We went and got tested after a couple of days, just to be sure and tested negative. The confusion with the app is that it tells you so little about where you were exposed and when so that you can potentially avoid that place for a bit. Anonymity respected in all other areas, of course. Horrible. Am starting to lose the will to live with it all a little bit. Also, anyone else find it annoying that the notifications sent to you by the app aren't saved anywhere?

Were you alerted to self-isolate? If so why did you go for a test then? Did you develop symptoms? Curious

London1305f · 15/12/2020 20:18

Yes that happened to me. Next door neighbours tested positive and my husband and I both got notifications on the app to isolate even though we haven’t been anywhere for days.

nosswith · 15/12/2020 20:22

The 'world beating' test and trace system as part of a system managed by a Tory peer whose previous experience including one of the worst data breaches by an internet service provider ever in the UK.

If it is saying you allegedly had contact with someone on Sunday, and you really did not leave the house at all, then it has made a mistake.

As for the person who referred to BoJo the clown, that is insulting to the profession of clowns, many of whom have suffered a great loss of income, increased because of the inactions of Mr Johnson in March and September.

efes · 15/12/2020 20:22

I don't have the app and I won't have it. Where I live and work there is no signal at all and I don't check in to anywhere because I don't go anywhere except work and home so it's of little or no benefit to me or anybody else for me to have it.

GabsAlot · 15/12/2020 20:28

ive stopped using the app only place ive been is nail bar and i filled out a form in there with my details

its about someone near u so yes can pick up neighbours

Tistheseason17 · 15/12/2020 20:34

As for the person who referred to BoJo the clown, that is insulting to the profession of clowns, many of whom have suffered a great loss of income, increased because of the inactions of Mr Johnson in March and September
🤣🤣🤣🤣

KEA321 · 15/12/2020 20:42

Same here! Really annoyed about it. No contact with anyone at all on the date they say.

Retiremental · 15/12/2020 20:44

@AcornAutumn

Kazzy - I’ve been into this in previous posts

My late father specialised in infectious disease management and there is no app required for this. I won’t repeat what I’ve said in previous threads.

How many global pandemics did your father work through?
MummaBear4321 · 15/12/2020 20:45

If you know you werent out on Sunday and there is no way you were a close contact with someone, then just ignore the app. You dont have to talk to the neighbours if you really dont want to. The app isnt some sort of legal imprisonment

JacobReesMogadishu · 15/12/2020 20:47

I know someone who got told by the app to isolate. He works from home, lives in a detached house in the country and hadn’t left the house for a week apart from to walk the dog across fields where he saw nobody. But he did as he was told even though I said it must be an error!

Plus he never actually got alerted as such, he happened to open the app and there was a message for him but if he hadn’t opened the app he wouldn’t have known. Surely it should flash a message up on the screen or something?

MissEllaWater · 15/12/2020 20:51

I live in a block of flats. There are eight flats in my block and there's another block of eight next door. My downstairs (ground floor, I'm on the top floor) neighbour tested positive and the neighbours immediately above him and either side of him were told to isolate. None had even spoken to him much less spent any time within him. I deleted the app after that - I can't risk being told to isolate because a neighbour I've not spoken to tests positive. We don't have visitors (even pre-covid), DH is wfh, I don't work and we go nowhere other than the supermarket, so it's not like we need to check in anywhere. I have about as much faith in the app as I do in the government.

Frazzled2207 · 15/12/2020 20:53

Not quite sure what the problem is here, if the app says you were in contact with someone on sunday and you didn't see anyone on Sunday, I would just ignore it. It's advisory anyway.

Miljea · 15/12/2020 20:55

I'm NHS, in a Trust that hasn't banned T&T. Staff are going 'Yessss!' - When they get the notification.

A colleague knows she was in no danger in her T&T encounter. The Trust's own staff Covid service told her that, based on her description of the 'encounter', she was safe; but she's taking 14 days off.

AcornAutumn · 15/12/2020 20:56

Retiremental

I was a lateish baby so what I know of

Hong Kong flu
SARS of early 2000s
Avian flu
Swine flu

I gather AIDS also counts as a pandemic, he did a lot of work on that too.

Also epidemics like MERS-Cov.

noss fair point re clowns!

Littleposh · 15/12/2020 20:56

@Wwydiywm

I wouldn't put a note through the door to ask, I have her number but I really do think its prying! I know a few people who have got huffy about being outed as positive
Looks like you're isolating for no reason then.

Did you post this thread for a reason??

AcornAutumn · 15/12/2020 20:57

@Miljea

I'm NHS, in a Trust that hasn't banned T&T. Staff are going 'Yessss!' - When they get the notification.

A colleague knows she was in no danger in her T&T encounter. The Trust's own staff Covid service told her that, based on her description of the 'encounter', she was safe; but she's taking 14 days off.

Oh dear. I thought NHS staff had all been told not to use it?
LemmysAceCard · 15/12/2020 21:02

Yes it has happened to my adult son, his neighbour has COVID and his app pinged, he never left the house. He rang the helpline and was told basically tough he has so self isolate as he has been in contact with a confirmed case. He hasn’t set eyes on the neighbour for weeks.

SleepyGirly · 15/12/2020 21:09

This is why I don’t use the app. It’s too unreliable. I’d only follow isolation requirements if work let me know. There’s no need to isolate your family (and lose income and child’s education) if you haven’t come in contact with your neighbours.

MummaBear4321 · 15/12/2020 21:11

@LemmysAceCard why didnt he just ignore them? Am I missing something here? Surely some element of common sense can be applied, or are we all just blindly sitting in our rooms for 2 weeks because an algorithm told us to?