Close contact at school with positive case but told not to self isolate by head.

[Mumof3andlovingit]

So a teacher friend of mine was sat within a meter of someone for more than 15 mins who went on to test positive for covid.
This “positive” person was speaking over her and both were not wearing masks.
Anyway that positive person is now isolating at home after the positive test but my friend has been told she doesn’t need to self isolate despite being sat right next to the positive person. The head wasn’t interested at all and she feels it is because they have so many teacher off and the school is really struggling. The head basically told her that she doesn’t need to isolate if the “positive” person has failed to name her as a close contact.
Is this correct? I am surprised that ultimately the head teacher gets to decide regardless of the government guidelines? She is worried as she believes her exposure is real and risks for her contracting the virus are high. She is also worried as she will probably have very mild symptoms being only 30 years old and will not know she is passing it on.
Any advice? She has decided to cancel Xmas as believes the head is deluded and not being responsible, she doesn’t have a choice in isolating but she has decided that apart from going in to work she will not go anywhere or meet anyone for 14 days including cancelling Xmas with her parents.

Isolation is now 10 days from when you had contact with infected person - it's not from day they had positive test but the day they had symptoms and contact.

She is absolutely right to isolate and it's refreshing to hear there are still socially responsible people.

But as we have a week until Christmas and the 5 days relaxation she may be able to have a small scale meet up at some point.

She should be isolating. I had almost this exact situation the positive case didn't name me as they forgotten we had a chat (about work, we were masked and it was about 5 mins...,for context!!) the head emailed all staff and asked to come forward if we thought we'd had contact. My head teacher was annoyed because we'd had a chat closer than 2m away...bit bloody difficult at the front of the classroom!! But told me to isolate which is a good job as I tested positive 3 days after that!

Your friend should call in and say she has to isolate. If head won't let her she needs to take a stand even if that means saying she has symptoms or has been pinged by track and trace.

She should probably also report to governors and, if they're not interested, PHE

School staff have not been considered close contacts where they have had a positive case sat in the front row of their classroom for an hour or more. That comes from PHE because we are magically always 2m away. Why would this instance be any different?

I'd suggest she takes today off ill and in a few days time say she has symptoms so she can get a test. She should still isolate regardless, but the test may give her some peace of mind.