Help- V confusing Self isolating issue

[VaccineSticker]

Name changed as this is outing.
We have an issue in our school bubble where one of the parents tested positive so their whole household has been isolating. They are meant to finish isolating this Wednesday, however two days ago one of the their 3 kids tested positive, track and trace said everyone can finish self isolating apart from the child who is positive. (?!!!)
How can this make sense when the positive child has been playing with his his two younger brothers and might possibly have give it to them but we don’t know yet as they might be still brewing it?
Have they been given wrong advice -because it doesn’t make any sense, Worst case scenario is that these two children go back to school and throw their whole year groups in isolation because they test positive.
I thought the clocks reset if you are isolating with someone who test positive.

My understanding is that the clock doesn't reset, only for the individual who tests positive. Reason for this is that the first infected person is supposed to keep away from the rest of the family as far as is practical. In a family with young children this obviously won't be possible.

So the parent who tested positive went and self isolated in a room and didn’t leave.
The 3 children and the other parent are in the same house but have zero contact with parent who is positive.
A week later one of the kids tests positive, track and trace said they don’t have to isolate when the clock times out from when they first started isolating. Only the positive child needs to isolate. Really?!
This makes zero sense.

The children have been playing with their brother who is now positive, how on earth are they not meant to isolate now?

I think it’s on the basis they’ve all had the same initial exposure. So they were all exposed at the same time. One child has caught it and is now showing symptoms so will need to continue to isolate. The others have been exposed at the same time but have not caught it.

This is a handy graphic from PHE showing the rules.

It is still correct, I'm afraid.
If any of the siblings show symptoms, obviously they have to isolate, but because the first child started symptoms within the isolation period of the parent, the time is up for the rest of the family.
There was a useful diagram, I remember. I will try to find it.

Yes we had this with a little one at our school too.
Utter madness, but correct.

Here it is - pretty much your exact situation.

Whoops - already been posted.

Thank you @MarcelineMissouri for the clarification.
The assumption that they were all exposed at the same time is flawed, their example demonstrates the flaw as dad picks up the virus at a later stage- I’m assuming from the positive child. The chain of virus needs to be cut off and these procedures don’t really cut off the chain completely to stop the virus spreading.

I can totally see the logic in your argument. I suppose if the clock did reset every time then you could end up with very long isolation periods for larger families/households and it just wouldn't be practical. Compliance is low enough already.

Don’t see how practically the clock could keep resetting in large households of 6, 7, 8. Someone could potentially be isolating for 10 days x 8 = 80 days, if each person caught it in turn.

@3teens2cats

I can totally see the logic in your argument. I suppose if the clock did reset every time then you could end up with very long isolation periods for larger families/households and it just wouldn't be practical. Compliance is low enough already.

In reality isn’t that really what should happen though? I agree with you @VaccineSticker It doesn’t add up at all I’d love to know how one of two parents to young children manages to self isolate in the same household lucky them

Yes that’s correct , similar happened in our household one by one we all got it but several days between so first person finished isolating after 10 days but one person me ended up isolating for 3 weeks in total as I got symptoms on day 10 which was fun .
If you think about it that you had to re set every time and a family of 4 , 5 and 6 then you would be isolating potentially for weeks . Obviously there is possibly a risk but you’ve done 10 days when infections so it’s fine .

You can have the virus but not show symptoms so that is the other risk I suppose

The assumption that they were all exposed at the same time is flawed

This is not the assumption, the time to infect the other members is covered.

If the family lives in a particularly large house an fully isolate from each other, until extreme ends then it is possible for the people to still be infectious coming out, but then it's also possible with the 14 days, there are documented cases of over 20 days before developing covid.

The current guidelines capture the vast majority of situations and because isolation has a cost (it makes you considerably less fit and less able to fight infections) it's not worth it to society to go longer.

I agree op its crazy. And not what the cdc says or said.
As you need to isolate for 10d from last contact as in this case it's kids who possibly share a room ortiys they are very unlikely to be separated from the other child.

Makes you think pcr tests say 5d after first in family has symptoms is the way to go...or immediately as that would also shut school bubbles to stop spread

Doesn’t make sense and if I was in that situation, I would keep my family in isolation further, apart from the first person who tested positive and is clear after isolation. It goes to show every situation is different. I do also partly get that if the other family were to get it, it would be most likely from early contact with the first infected person.

Also aside from others catching it the first released people will still be living in a house with someone with contagious covid in so if it does spread on surfaces at all it would be all over the other sibling's stuff.