College tested positive for coronavirus

[Haribo19]

Hi. A college has tested positive for coronavirus today. We work in the safe office in the same room as each other. I have told my work I am not comfortable still being in the office. But they haven’t told me to work from home.
Do I have leg to stand on at all and would you feel concerned if this was you?

Not necessarily. Were you in close contact , unmasked, in previous 48 hours. Colleague could have caught it elsewhere.

When were you last in contact with them? Shouldn't you be self isolating?

If she’s no longer going to be in there then, once the surfaces have been cleaned, I don’t see why it would be a problem. I would be taking my own bleach spray / alcohol spray in & doing it myself though (mask on, windows opened) so I knew it had all been cleaned & no surface/keyboard/handles had been missed.

I thought you meant a whole college!

When did you last work with the colleague, and when did they start getting symptoms?

@BrokenCircle

I thought you meant a whole college!

Unnecessary. You knew what she meant.

If you do a job that can be done from home you should be working from he anyway.

I think guidelines are that anyone in contact with them 48 hours of the symptoms showing/positive result need to self isolate?
Also as pp said, you should if you can be working from home anyway at present.

@BrokenCircle

I thought you meant a whole college!

That's what I thought from the title as well.

Unless you've been within 2m for at least 15 mins you won't be asked to self-isolate by track and trace. If you have breached social distancing guidelines, you need to explain this to your employer and isolate yourself

@turnthebiglightoff

If you do a job that can be done from home you should be working from he anyway.

A safe office suggests something like counting money or doing banking so working from home probably isn't an option.

What are the timings of last contact, positive test, social distance etc. The answer is going to depend on the specific circumstances

@LIZS wearing a mask doesn't stop you being a contact of someone, it should hopefully reduce your risk of testing positive but you still have to isolate (unless you're a healthcare worker in full PPE).

@PaigeMatthews not from the title - only after reading the post.

Just sharing an office with someone doesn't mean automatic isolation. In my organisation many of us are in, working in close contact and PPE is mostly not possible. Where there have been positive cases, even if they sit 2m from each other, unless they have breached that 2m they are not asked to isolate by track and trace. My eldest child has a positive case in her art class, only the children who sit directly next to him were told to isolate as everyone else at least 2m away.