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Original poster

Test and trace app has just pinged....

108 replies

Purplethrow · 09/01/2021 22:50

and I have to isolate for 13 days . However, I have been to the supermarket once in the last 7days and didn’t take my phone, I have been for 2 walks and didn’t take my phone. I haven’t been in anyone’s company for 15 minutes or more.
Does anyone know the time frame between someone that I may have been in contact with testing positive and the app pinging?
I have wracked my brains and can only think it was a British Gas engineer who came round before Christmas.
Could it be my next door neighbour, who I haven’t seen but could have been ‘near’ albeit divided by an adjoining wall ?

OP posts:
Original poster
Purplethrow · 10/01/2021 14:14

I asked my neighbour to my left and it’s not her . The neighbours on my right have recently moved in and I don’t know their number so can’t ask them . They have had all and sundry round so it maybe it’s them .

OP posts:
opinionatedfreak · 10/01/2021 14:21

My sister's next door neighbour got pinged when she put in her positive test code.

I stopped using the app as I'm a HCP and kept forgetting to turn it off at work where I wear PPE.

Sparklingbrook · 10/01/2021 14:26

My friend received one yesterday to isolate for 5 days. Bar a less than 15 minutes in the shop outing for bread last week she's not been anywhere. No close neighbours either.

Original poster
Purplethrow · 10/01/2021 14:35

It is so frustrating, I hate the not knowing where I had contact.

OP posts:
Sparklingbrook · 10/01/2021 15:06

@Purplethrow

It is so frustrating, I hate the not knowing where I had contact.
That's understandable, I expect there's been a lot of people scratching their heads over it.
Original poster
Purplethrow · 10/01/2021 15:35

I’m sure. Oh well, the bottom line is I have been pinged and will follow the rules

OP posts:
Katie517 · 10/01/2021 15:41

@Purplethrow just curious as to why you will “follow the rules” if you know you haven’t been exposed? At a time like this we need accuracy and if the app isn’t giving that and the tests aren’t giving that then surely it needs raising rather than people blindly following “rules” when they know they are wrong otherwise the system remains broken.

Original poster
Purplethrow · 10/01/2021 15:55

I have just called 119 and explained the situation, the chap said that it could have been activated by someone driving past my house or even someone living down my road , not necessarily a next door neighbour even.

I know I have been careful, I won’t fully isolate but will be mindful ,as I always have been .

OP posts:
Original poster
Purplethrow · 10/01/2021 15:57

@Katie517 the chap said , in not so many words, that the app is useless!

OP posts:
Sparklingbrook · 10/01/2021 16:05

People are presumably not going into work because they are following the isolation rules of this app.

If it's from someone driving past in the car where's the 'within 2 metres for 15 minutes' that it's supposed to detect?

PinkSparklyPussyCat · 10/01/2021 16:10

@Purplethrow

Does it work through walls ?
My osteopath had a sign up saying turn off the app as it will pick up from someone in the next treatment room.

I've deleted it now. I don't always take my phone when I go out anyway and I live in a flat so I won't be isolating if it picks up a neighbour's phone!

Original poster
Purplethrow · 10/01/2021 16:27

@Sparklingbrook , it’s crazy and I guess many people have isolated when they didn’t have to.
I’ve just googled and Bluetooth has a range of about 10 metres , I guess it can’t distinguish distance, it just detects anything by that is within this range .

OP posts:
Sparklingbrook · 10/01/2021 16:41

Yes, now we seem to have people not isolating when they should be and other isolating when they don't need to!

It's all a bit much isn't it? My friend is going to do the isolating but she's a bit non plussed with it all.

YippeeKayakOtherBuckets · 10/01/2021 16:46

The app is pants.

Dh and I both had positive results; put the code in the app and it gave us a ten day isolation. Emails and texts from NHS said five days. DD got a notification for 14 days, DS got nothing (both live at home).

Track and trace people then called to release me on the 5th Jan, five days post test.

The whole thing is a mess. I actually haven’t left the house since Xmas day though.

Original poster
Purplethrow · 10/01/2021 16:47

The chap I spoke to has deleted the app and said they get loads of confused callers.

OP posts:
Flaxmeadow · 10/01/2021 16:58

I don't understand why pp are saying they "only went to the shop/supermarket and so couldnt have caught it"

Confused

Supermarkets and shops are some of the main places where this virus is being spread.

MerciSeat · 10/01/2021 16:59

@Flaxmeadow

I don't understand why pp are saying they "only went to the shop/supermarket and so couldnt have caught it" Confused

Supermarkets and shops are some of the main places where this virus is being spread.

Among staff who spend a lot of time together perhaps, but among customers? Really?
Flaxmeadow · 10/01/2021 17:08

Among staff who spend a lot of time together perhaps, but among customers? Really?

Yes really!

Original poster
Purplethrow · 10/01/2021 17:12

@Flaxmeadow I didn’t say I couldn’t have caught it in a supermarket, I said the test and trace couldn’t have pinged when I was in the supermarket because I didn’t have my phone with me.

OP posts:
MerciSeat · 10/01/2021 17:13

@Flaxmeadow

Among staff who spend a lot of time together perhaps, but among customers? Really?

Yes really!

Where did you hear/read this? The only place I go is the supermarket and I have no contact with anyone else outside my household (apart from deliveries). Just wondered what the risk is.
Flaxmeadow · 10/01/2021 17:18

Yes I understand OP but pp, not just here but in other threads do say it.

We know now that aerosol transmission is more prevalent than was previously understood last spring and that formite transmission, the emphasis back in the spring, is still a way of transmission as well. In relation to shops and supermarkets spread. I posted this on another thread

"...Some of these places have low ceilings, no ventilation, thousands of people in and out all day long. All breathing in and out the same air. This is why it is so important to get in and out as quickly as possible and not browse and only shop for essentials

Look at the way measles is so infectious. I'm not saying covid is as infectious as measles, thankfully it isn't, nowhere near as, but measles can be caught by someone alone in a room, not touching anything, breathing the same air as someone infected who had left that room hours ago. A sobering thought..."

dementedpixie · 10/01/2021 17:19

The 15 minutes within 2m is cumulative so if you are close to someone in 2 or 3 aisles and then maybe have to queue for tills then those individual encounters could add up to that amount of time. Or maybe you are accidentally within 1m of someone for 1 minute that tests positive for covid then that would trigger the app too

yearinyearout · 10/01/2021 17:22
  • You dont have to isolate You only have to isolate if contacted by track and trace as a named contact. *

Is that correct? So if it's just the app telling you, you can ignore it? Someone I know is isolating after the app said so, as she had been for a walk with someone who tested positive, so although she was with someone it was outside. She didn't get a call from T&T.

Tiktokersmiracle · 10/01/2021 17:22

The only time you still have to isolate for 14 days of you've had the test and it's positive. The app is crappy, it keeps loading in the background on my phone so I turned location off, I firmly believe that's how the police are getting details of potential breaches to fine people for daring to sit on a bench.

dementedpixie · 10/01/2021 17:28

@yearinyearout

* You dont have to isolate You only have to isolate if contacted by track and trace as a named contact. *

Is that correct? So if it's just the app telling you, you can ignore it? Someone I know is isolating after the app said so, as she had been for a walk with someone who tested positive, so although she was with someone it was outside. She didn't get a call from T&T.

Its not legally enforceable if its the app telling you to isolate as everything is done anonymously.