Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Covid

Mumsnet doesn't verify the qualifications of users. If you have medical concerns, please consult a healthcare professional.

Original poster

NHS Test & Trace have contacted me - need to take DS to school!

235 replies

SaintVal · 10/06/2021 07:27

Apologies if this has been done to death but I have just been told by NHS test and trace to self isolate for ten days as someone I have been in contact with has tested positive! I have no idea who this is so can only assume it's someone who checked into the same restaurant as me last Thursday. So... how do I get my DS6 to school? Single parent. Nightmare!

OP posts:
WhentheDealGoesDown1 · 10/06/2021 09:11

Why have you got the app...

DumplingsAndStew · 10/06/2021 09:13

This makes me laugh

"I haven't been anywhere but home"
"I've been to the Post Office, school, shop, restaurant, my Dad's house and the supermarket."

Grin
dementedpixie · 10/06/2021 09:14

[quote SaintVal]@chickenfoot just clicked on 'other data' and it says the exposure was yesterday! I did school run, co op, post office, school pick up then straight home. I didn't hang about anywhere. This is ridiculous![/quote]
While shopping you could have got close enough several times to the same person to add up to 15 minutes. Its the whole point of the app so if you aren't going to abide by it why do you have it in the first place?

dementedpixie · 10/06/2021 09:15

@DumplingsAndStew

This makes me laugh

"I haven't been anywhere but home"
"I've been to the Post Office, school, shop, restaurant, my Dad's house and the supermarket."

Grin

Quite! Grin
Jellybabiesforbreakfast · 10/06/2021 09:16

Delete the app.

osbertthesyrianhamster · 10/06/2021 09:16

Delete the app and crack on with your life.

DancesWithDaffodils · 10/06/2021 09:19

Isolation notifications from the app weren't legally enforceable. I'd check the current situation on that.

Then I'd go about my day to day business, being careful about hygiene, masks and distance.

FWIW, when I initially thought youd been contacted by track and trace, I was all set to tell you of course you couldnt take your son to school, and you needed to stay at home.

nordica · 10/06/2021 09:20

@Thefaceofboe

I agree with deleting the app. If it’s genuine (doesn’t look like it can be) someone will phone you. I had 3 phone calls the first day of my isolation, all telling me the same thing Hmm
The whole point of the app is so you can be alerted to contacts with people you don't know. No one can phone you if the stranger you sat next to on the bus tests positive the next day, because they don't know who you are. You only get a phone call if someone names you as a known contact.

Obviously at this point it's likely most people wouldn't want to isolate for 10 days after a fairly low-risk contact like that, though. I suppose the benefit of the app is still that if you test positive, anyone who was potentially exposed will get alerted - some people may have more pressing reasons for wanting to know and stay away from vulnerable relatives in that case.

ChatterMonkey · 10/06/2021 09:24

Think its funny that you continue to say you havent been anywhere other than a restaurant a week ago (so completely not related to this notification...) And then list multiple places you were yesterday... Post office and co-op are indoor places, where you can get closer than 2 meters with people, so not really sure why you think these places are so safe they dont even log in your brain as 'places' but it had to be the restaurant that you were exposed in??

Original poster
SaintVal · 10/06/2021 09:26

I have never said I wasn't going to abide by it! My son's Dad is going to do the school runs.

I didn't realise having the app was a voluntary thing ... I just downloaded it like lots of others and up until now, it has never alerted me other than about changes in restrictions; I forget it's even there as I never look at it.

There was no queue in the post office yesterday, oddly, so I wasn't very long in these places. School pick up was from outside the gate and we went straight home.

When I first got the alert I assumed it was from the restaurant check in last week or someone I knew. I didn't realise that by using Bluetooth it could pick up from any person (known to me or not) that I had been next to for 15 minutes (which I don't believe I was anyway).

OP posts:
ARealHoliday · 10/06/2021 09:26

@Yellowbrickrobe

Drive to school and let them walk in themselves? Shouldn’t be someone in a restaurant surely as you should have been over two metres apart?
Covid is airborne. All the studies have shown this, so one person in a restaurant can aerosolise and infect the entire room. Same with walking around to your table/toilet etc.
ARealHoliday · 10/06/2021 09:30

@Katie517

Why do people still have this useless app? A contact is being within 2m if someone for 15 mins or more, this won’t happen when running errands like OP has said. Turn it off or delete it and get on with your life. People are letting a useless piece of technology override their common sense. You know you haven’t been in close contact with anyone so therefore you are no risk to anyone so go above your business as usual!
A contact is also someone with direct physical contact, like a hug which can only last seconds and doesn’t need to be 15mins. The same with riding in a car. Less than 1min is considered a contact in a car.
ZoBo123 · 10/06/2021 09:32

Maybe check with your neighbours either side of you to see if they have tested positive.

Rainbowsandstorms · 10/06/2021 09:33

If you were under a 1 meter distance with the person who tested positive then you would only have needed to be in contact with them for a minute for it flag as a close contact.

KeepingTrack · 10/06/2021 09:34

You’ve just learned why many people don’t have the app. And the ones that do are told to switch it off
Eg my dcs whilst at school.....

Rainbowsandstorms · 10/06/2021 09:34

As someone above says also double check if it could be your neighbours as the only time the app has pinged me has been after our neighbour tested positive and our phones linked.

XiCi · 10/06/2021 09:35

Delete the App and think no more about it

HarebrightCedarmoon · 10/06/2021 09:36

The app is bollocks, just ignore it. If someone phones you, that's different.

dementedpixie · 10/06/2021 09:36

Examples of close contact include:

  • close face to face contact (under 1 metre) for any length of time – including talking to them or coughing on them
  • being within 1 to 2 metres of each other for more than 15 minutes – including travelling in a small vehicle
  • spending lots of time in your home, such as cleaning it
Original poster
SaintVal · 10/06/2021 09:36

Ok well look, I'll stay in for ten days. I don't want to pass Covid on if I have been exposed to it. I just hadn't realised how the app actually worked.

OP posts:
youngestisapsycho · 10/06/2021 09:37

Honestly. I would just ignore it. I don't have the app so would never be told anyway.

DataColour · 10/06/2021 09:37

If you did not wear a mask and your interaction was less than 1 minute you don't need to self isolate. If you did wear a mask and the interaction was less than 15 mins you don't have to isolate. If you have maintained 2m distancing throughout regardless of masks you don't have to self isolate.

DataColour · 10/06/2021 09:39

sorry - Did wear a mask and you were less than 2m and interaction was less than 15mins you don't have to self isolate

dementedpixie · 10/06/2021 09:41

@DataColour

sorry - Did wear a mask and you were less than 2m and interaction was less than 15mins you don't have to self isolate
Masks don't take away the need to self isolate. OP doesn't know who the positive case is so has no idea what distance she was from the person that the app has linked her to.
Swipe left for the next trending thread