Walk with friend for 25 mins now tested positive

[R1234567]

Hi all,

Just after some advice, I went for a walk with my friend for about 25 mins, prob at 1m distance who tested positive the next day. What do you think the chances are of infection?

Not sure but I think a lot of people would be interested to know whether you succumb. There doesn't seem to be any info on how risky 1m outside is re the new variant. For your sake I hope you don't get it.

No point getting a test now but as a close contact you should isolate. Get a test if you develop symptoms

How the fuck are we nearly a year into this mess and people still don’t get it?

Well, clearly the OP didn’t get it. A non-distanced walk, without a mask, with someone outside her household.

This whole thread is why we’re still in this mess and it’s likely that 1in 20 Londoners are infected ...

So hard to know. Some people live with people who test positive and never get it and others pick it up from fleeting contact. Positive thing is that you were outdoors negatives are that you were within a meter without masks and the new variant is more transmissible. Either way you need to isolate for the full 10 days regardless of if you decide to get a test. If you test without symptoms and test negative you still must isolate due to the incubation period as you could become positive at any point during the isolation period. I hope you and your friend stay well.

When was this?

There is no point getting a test if it's only been a few days since exposure.

The is a fairly significant chance you were infected but it's not certain as you were outside. You should definitely be self-isolating.

If you were infected then a test won't be positive until 5/6 days later and even then it would be possible to get a false negative even then depending on how swiftly the bugs are multiplying. You would be at peak infectiousness around day 8 (by which time it is less likely that you would get a false negative but still possible) but wouldn't show symptoms till day 9 or 10.

Best thing to do is isolate because even if you get a negative test it doesn't prove anything.

@LizzieSiddal

Am I the only one who wants to know why you were walking only 1m apart when the rules say 2m?

No, I wondered this too!

Unless the OP is going to tell us she was wearing a mask, of course...

What’s the chance we won’t find out

Op post if you get symptoms or not

I don't know of any studies to give OP a good answer.
But I will watch thread coz Im interested in how OP turns out.

My 90% confidence guess is that OP will be fine - not develop covid in next 2.5 weeks.

Depends if at any point you were facing eachother, talking brings with it droplets & you weren't wearing masks or 2 meters apart & with the new variant i imagine chances quite high unfortunately. I would self isolate and book a test

I’d say low. 2 children in my class tested positive before Christmas did not pass it on to me. I was in relatively close proximity to them, indoors. Outside, the risk is far smaller due to ventilation.

It's impossible to say. One of the DC tested positive after a school friend did. No one else in the house got it despite us all living together!

But I would definitely say you should isolate.

@Robbybobtail

God, people are ridiculous on here. I would say the chances are extremely low OP. Considering: My dsis who is nhs and has worked with covid patients since March hasn’t caught it, neither have most of her colleagues (despite having only the blue masks and a plastic apron for protection) Out of the 3 families I know who have had members of their family test positive, other family members have remained negative despite living in the same house and not staying apart from one another until they new they had it (and two of these were married couples sharing a bed) So yeah, I’d say the chances are pretty minimal.

People need to get a grip, seriously. The speed with which people are willing to give up all freedoms and will only be happy once we are welded into our homes and surviving on tinned food from the back of the cupboard that went out of date in 2001 is really fucking frightening quite frankly.
I’m only glad no one I know in RL seems to think like this.

Great example of the mindset that is keeping cases high.

Great example of the mindset that is keeping cases high

God, you’re soooo original! People are not catching it going on socially distanced walks outside ffs.

I'd isolate JIC - I mean, it's hardly like you're missing out on much by doing so (unless you have to be at a workplace) for 10 days. I think it's still pretty unlikely to transmit outside, especially over only 25 mins, but, as people said, we don't really know if it might be possible with new variant.

Stick to scientific facts. This is not where spread is happening. We know this!!

People are not catching it going on socially distanced walks outside ffs.

But the OP has said that they weren't socially distanced.

My friend did similar but 15mins. Tested positive later that week. Good chance of you getting it. Sorry but that why shouldn't be mixing.

@Robbybobtail

God, people are ridiculous on here. I would say the chances are extremely low OP. Considering: My dsis who is nhs and has worked with covid patients since March hasn’t caught it, neither have most of her colleagues (despite having only the blue masks and a plastic apron for protection) Out of the 3 families I know who have had members of their family test positive, other family members have remained negative despite living in the same house and not staying apart from one another until they new they had it (and two of these were married couples sharing a bed) So yeah, I’d say the chances are pretty minimal.

People need to get a grip, seriously. The speed with which people are willing to give up all freedoms and will only be happy once we are welded into our homes and surviving on tinned food from the back of the cupboard that went out of date in 2001 is really fucking frightening quite frankly.
I’m only glad no one I know in RL seems to think like this.

exactly. If even the newest variant was able to spread as easily as some people seem to be convinced it can then how would we have got to ten months with the vast vast majority of people not catching it? Currently we are on 2 million cases out of a population of 66 million. Even if you doubled, or even tripled that for people who couldn't get tested at the start or who were asymptomatic, that's still less than one in ten people who have caught it, and that's with many people still going to work every day, most people in the supermarkets at some point, eat out to help out over the summer, etc. If you were likely to catch it from being within 1 metre of someone outdoors when they happened to breathe, then every person who went on their 'daily exercise' would have picked it up at some point over the last ten months!

Irrespective of what your chances are, you HAVE to isolate for 10 days as this counts as a close contact. Hopefully you’re already aware of this and are just posting because you are a little anxious of your chances of getting ill now.

As others have said, risk depends on exact behaviour when you met (eg how much if at all you were talking face to face).

For every anecdote of someone who hasn’t got unwell when close family members have had covid, there are anecdotes from people who have caught it from fleeting interactions.

I would think it more likely than not that you won’t catch it from her, but that the risk is not trivial. Maybe 1 in 5 chance?

@Robbybobtail

Great example of the mindset that is keeping cases high

God, you’re soooo original! People are not catching it going on socially distanced walks outside ffs.

Socially distanced walks are at a distance of at least 2m. The clue is in the ‘distance’ bit.

FFS.

HTH.

OP, hope you're ok. Despite some of the reactions on here, you're allowed to exercise with a friend. Ideally it would have been further apart, but it would be interesting to know whether you get symptoms. A few of us have friends we' walk with or would like to. I sometimes work outside, no ppe allowed, and discuss work matters with my colleague

With the new variant I’d say a pretty good chance.

For reference I walked with a friend in the summer who two days later tested positive after symptoms. I did not get it. We were wearing masks and 2m apart.

It’s the new variant that I think changes things.

Robby - we know that MOST cases are from family or work. That’s not the same as all. Lots of people catch and don’t know from where.
That’s irrelevant to the OP though.
It’s not whether she should have gone on a walk, it’s what she does now that matters. She probably won’t get it, but she still has to isolate because she might, and she might pass it on. And that is how the damn thing spreads! No one is spreading it on purpose!

People are ridiculous on here. We know the risk of spread outside is low. Had this changed? The new variant spreads more outside does it?

It has a significantly increased viral load, so yes, it is believed to spread more easily outside.

Thevassal - enough people have it to be causing a crisis in our hospitals! That’s the issue! How is that hard to understand?