Track and trace contact …confused…

[Sinistericecreamvan]

I’ve just had a call from a cafe I was in recently to say that someone who was in at the same time as me has tested positive for coronavirus.
I was surprised the cafe called initially because I thought it would be the official track and trace line - does it need to be logged officially somehow?! They just said I would need to follow the guidelines and isolate for 10 days.
However I have just got results back from a PCR test that have come back negative for me and DS as he had a temp for a few days - turns out this was teething

So does this mean I still have to isolate? Do I have to get another test? I’m really confused as the person who called didn’t seem to know exactly what needed to happen either just said to isolate and they were contacting everyone who had been there on the same day

@HeronLanyon

I’ve also seen that in England even if you’ve only been in for say39 mins the app has you there until midnight a gets no ability to scan out. In Scotland you can scan out All of this is from the app developer replies to recent reviews in the app store so no obvious reason to think this is not right (?)

It is correct, you can't check out but you don't need to because the checkin bit of the app is not so that you can be told you are a close contact and to isolate. It's so PHE can identify any outbreaks at a venue and alert people who were there at a similar time that they might have been in contact with a positive case, and to make sure to follow current social distancing guidelines. Paper lists are for the same purpose and the cafe should have given them to Test and Trace so T&T can alert people.

It's the contact tracing part of the app (which can be turned off) which can detect that you were in close contact with a positive case and tell you to self isolate. Outside of the app, a positive person giving your name to T&T as a close contact can also result in you being told to self isolate.

@HazeyJaneII

If it was a worker at the cafe, then yes, I think you need to isolate. I would imagine track and trace will be in touch.

I hadn't seen it was a worker when I posted about the list not being used to tell people to self isolate. There's a higher chance I guess of close contact with a server than with other customers, who are supposed to be 1 metre plus away from each other.

According to this the cafe shouldn't be making any calls themselves

www.gov.uk/guidance/maintaining-records-of-staff-customers-and-visitors-to-support-nhs-test-and-trace

Had a call from track and trace now

Because if op has been a close contact then testing negative on a PCR on one day, just shows they were negative on that day, you are still supposed to isolate for 10 days, as that is the incubation period.

This. The cafe shouldn’t call you, they should contact T&T to handle it and advise you. That’s what T&T is for. It’s not being used properly. There are many reasons why businesses don’t want to use T&T properly.

Either you were in contact (for 15mins or more) without PPE, with someone who tested positive ... or you weren’t. It’s as simple as that really.

@Sinistericecreamvan

Had a call from track and trace now

And what did they tell you?

What day were you at the cafe?

@Sinistericecreamvan

The app wouldn’t let me check in on the day it didn’t load the window to scan the code, a few other people had the same problem so left our numbers. It’s a worker at the cafe so I guess they could have been the one who took our order. I just thought you got a call from the actual track and trace service so was a bit confused

You do. A lot of places will call you as well to let you know. I suspect you will probably get a call from test & trace in the next couple of days.

Oops. Didn’t see the second page. See they have contacted you.

Good to see Track and Trace is working well, so many people say the system doesn’t work, but this shows that it does.

to be honest what member of staff is within 2m for 15 mins of a table? Contact is 15 mins not taking an order - i'd have avoided that call OP

Test and trace take longer to tell people to isolate, than the actual person who tested positive. I found in my experience. I heard they are much better now, but at one point I was told to self isolate ds1 for two remaining days since his exposure.

I got sent home for one day from my nanny job after test and trace contacted my boss- 13 days after the family came back from a weekend abroad. They were bloody useless then, probably still are now.

Good point about T&T taking longer to contact you if they are overwhelmed with a lot of cases/ and their contacts.

But I’m glad OP answered the call. If it’s a member of staff then they’ve been breathing indoors at the cafe, whilst infected, for a whole shift, and with co-workers or regulars (potentially) doing the same. T&T are the people who will advise and ask the right questions about how to handle this.

That is if we ever want to get out of lockdowns/restrictions?

Honestly they were quite quick when they contacted 8 of us. This was at the very start of the Autumn wave - after a period of low infections/cases. Suppose that makes a difference, along with size of gatherings/capacity of venues maybe?

I work for test and trace in wales. We contact most contacts of people who have tested positive on the same day usually.
This only happens if the contact tracer has managed to get hold of the person who has tested positive and they have given all of the correct details of who they've been in contact with.
It definitely works, I dread to think how many positive people would be waking around otherwise!