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Covid

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Original poster

COVID App concern

27 replies

Jenasaurus · 27/04/2021 22:08

My DD has just had a notification that she has to isolate for 5 days as someone she was in contact with on Wednesday has tested positive. She works with children and is literally about 1 minute walking distance from home and that is the only place she went on Wednesday, work and home. Now she has called her Manager and no one else in her team of 8 has received a notification to isolate. Her team basically put their phones in a locker all day while they are working, and she's the only one told to isolate.

How is this possible, she goes nowhere, her walk to work is literally about 40 steps from our home so she wont have passed anyone on route, and she then comes home. The only thing she can think is an Amazon delivery worker may have come in contact dropping off a delivery, but her manager says you need to be in close contact for 5 minutes for it to register.

Its a mystery, None of the children haven been absent, or staff so none of them have tested positive.

Can the app be wrong?

OP posts:

Waterlemon · 27/04/2021 22:18

What about a nursery parent? How does the setting do drop offs/pick ups? Maybe it’s a parent that then didn’t notify the Nursery that they’d tested positive?

shouldistop · 27/04/2021 22:43

And that's why I deleted the app after a couple of weeks. Too many reports of issues with it.

ForeverInADay · 27/04/2021 22:48

Parent at nursery or next door neighbours?

Original poster

Jenasaurus · 27/04/2021 22:51

@ForeverInADay

Parent at nursery or next door neighbours?

If it was a parent at the nursery, her co workers who were at the nursery on the Wednesday would also have been notifiedand the child of the parent kept off, but no children have been kept off and no other workers have been asked to isolate.

If it was a neighbour then myself and her boyfriend who lives with us would also have had an isolation notification.

We have literally gone through everything, even considering someone lying about being with her and giving her details to track and trace, she feels guilty as they are short staffed this week due to a couple of staff on annual leave and she had to say she cant return for 5 days.

OP posts:

AnnoyedByAlfieBear · 27/04/2021 22:53

Don't be so sure that it's Wednesday that she had the contact with a positive test. I know people that have called 119 and they've told them they had contact on a different date to what the app said. Also, when it went round my work, the pings all happened at various times 1-3 days apart.

HalfShrunkMoreToGo · 27/04/2021 22:59

How sure can you be that none of the other staff have received a notification to self isolate? If they get reduced pay to isolate and feel fine they may decide not to report it to the manager.

Original poster

Jenasaurus · 27/04/2021 23:01

@AnnoyedByAlfieBear

To be fair I thought this too about whether it could be a day other than Wednesday, although she goes nowhere at all except work and home so the same would apply with her co workers not being contacted. Unless as you say they are going to get their notification later.

It seems odd if the contact was Wednesday, they are contacting her nearly 7 days later to isolate. Its all so confusing to be honest.

All her colleagues except her had COVID about 40 days ago so would that be why they dont have to Isolate but she does?

OP posts:

Original poster

Jenasaurus · 27/04/2021 23:04

@HalfShrunkMoreToGo

How sure can you be that none of the other staff have received a notification to self isolate? If they get reduced pay to isolate and feel fine they may decide not to report it to the manager.

They have a group chat and she knows they follow the rules strictly as they have to being a nursery. I am confident at least one of them would have said they had a notifcation if they did.

OP posts:

Original poster

Jenasaurus · 27/04/2021 23:05

@shouldistop

And that's why I deleted the app after a couple of weeks. Too many reports of issues with it.

That is kind of the conclusion I am coming to, to be honest

OP posts:

minuetpiece · 27/04/2021 23:07

minuetpiece · 27/04/2021 23:08

No one I know uses the ap. Via my work and a lot of other things I'm involved in, I know a huge number

dementedpixie · 27/04/2021 23:09

There's a bit on the app that tells you when the contact was. And it would have been 5 days ago if there's 5 days left on the timer (10 day isolation)

dementedpixie · 27/04/2021 23:11

If the phones are in lockers the tracing should be switched off. Should only be on when the phone is physically with them

HarrietSchulenberg · 27/04/2021 23:12

In school we were asked to delete the app 6 months ago due to its unreliability. One weekend it sent notifications to about 50 staff and students, but not to others in the same bubbles. When we did proper contact tracing on Monday it had picked up that a relative off a staff member had tested positive and notified everyone it thought had been in contact based on proximity. It didn't pick up that the staff member had no symptoms and a negative test, and that 80% of those it notified had been in the rooms next door, or in one case had merely walked past the room he was in.

The app isn't fit for purpose and I refused to download the useless piece of shite from the outset.

minuetpiece · 27/04/2021 23:21

I agree. I never downloaded it. I don't know anyone who did as my job means we'd get loads of false alerts. If ignore it even if I had it

Torvean · 27/04/2021 23:26

Its too early to stop using the app. I use the Scottish version never had an issue with it. I've had it on accidentally in clinical areas and not had any false notifications.

Op I think you'll need to contact them to discover the place and time that she was reported as being in contact. Then you can work it out or disregard.

MercyBooth · 28/04/2021 01:05

@HarrietSchulenberg There has been the same issues in blocks of flats too.

Original poster

Jenasaurus · 28/04/2021 01:49

[quote MercyBooth]@HarrietSchulenberg There has been the same issues in blocks of flats too.[/quote]
Interesting as we live in a masionette over 2 floors, there is a masionettebelow us and one either side of us, so almost like a flat set up. The only thing with this theory is that neither myself or her boyfriend who live here have been contacted and told to isolate. i did consider that though.

OP posts:

Katie517 · 28/04/2021 07:45

Get rid of the app it’s useless. I have never had it for this reason. If you had been in contact with someone for the required amount of time to be a contact and they had informed track and trace you would know about it anyway. It still amazes me that people listen to the app and isolate knowing full well they have not been near anyone!

dementedpixie · 28/04/2021 07:51

Test and trace relies on people knowing who you are so they can ask for details.

The app works on Bluetooth and will ping you if you've been close enough for a cumulative 15 minutes I.e. a few minutes here and there can add up to the 15 minutes, it doesn't have to be a full 15 minutes at a time

CarmelBeach · 28/04/2021 09:25

Jen "The only thing with this theory is that neither myself or her boyfriend who live here have been contacted and told to isolate"

This might dependent on which wall your phone has been near. Especially a bedroom wall. My DH was going to install it but decided it was too chaotic.

RedMarauder · 28/04/2021 09:40

Bluetooth works through walls.

Years ago I had a neighbour message me because I left bluetooth on on one of my laptops as I forgot.

Due to the fact that particular neighbour works outside the home, I don't have any face-to-face interaction with them and I work at home I deleted the app.

bookworm1632 · 28/04/2021 09:45

You missed out the bit where due to the way BT works, the distance measurement is meaningless. The contact could be 10 metres away and the phone think it's 1m, or 1m and the phone thinks it's 10m.

In tests, the accuracy of the app to detect close cases was almost random which is why I've never installed it. It's the product of a government demanding a solution, despite being told that it was technologically not possible.

megletthesecond · 28/04/2021 10:08

I never downloaded it as my Bluetooth picks neighbours devices. I don't speak to them from one month to the next, I certainly didn't want to isolate because of them.

Northernsoullover · 28/04/2021 10:11

I had one on Christmas day. In the app settings it said I had contact on X date. I went to Sainsbury on that day for milk and used self check out. It was a ninja shop. Because of my job I was asked to isolate. I turned the app off which was disappointing because I really did believe its useful. I don't come into contact with anyone at work either because I am fully remote but because of my job title I couldn't not isolate. There is no way I could have been exposed for the required time to trigger an alert.

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