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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:
Confusedandshaken · 10/06/2021 09:41

@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?
Even if someone in a restaurant was seated 10m away the OP might have had contact with them coming in or out or on the way to the loo. They might have left germs on a door handle that the OP has picked up. Or a waiter might have moved between the two tables and cross contaminated them.

Statistically it's unlikely that the OP has contracted it in this way but it's possible and with the rising R number it's better to err on the side of caution .

whynotwhatknot · 10/06/2021 09:41

can you do a lateral flow test for the next few days that will put your mi nd at rest

Bigbus · 10/06/2021 09:58

The app told my husband to isolate because our neighbour in a terrace had it even though there is a brick wall between us!

NotSorry · 10/06/2021 09:59

PP's are saying delete the app, but what do people do when they go to a restaurant (for example) and the restaurant is saying to check in with the NHS app (if they have deleted it)

PurpleDaisies · 10/06/2021 10:01

@NotSorry

PP's are saying delete the app, but what do people do when they go to a restaurant (for example) and the restaurant is saying to check in with the NHS app (if they have deleted it)
There’s another thread saying they’re all leaving false details.
jimb0b · 10/06/2021 10:05

My brother had an alert from the app, but he spoke with the actual track and trace people several times on the phone (he was very anxious to not break the rules) and I think he was advised that if he took a test and the results were negative then he would be ok and wouldn't have to isolate. As other posters have said it works on the blue tooth and so isn't always accurate. Definitely worth checking.

DumplingsAndStew · 10/06/2021 10:05

@NotSorry

There has to be an alternative, the NHS app is not compulsory

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

I have some lateral flow tests here so will do a few over the course of the week.

OP posts:
MrKlaw · 10/06/2021 10:06

so confusing. You only have to self isolate, but surely you're near all your family in the house so don't they also have to self isolate?

youngestisapsycho · 10/06/2021 10:07

I tell them I don't have the app and there is usually a paper log where you leave your name and number or they have their own code to scan.
You can also, as friends have done, just pretend you are scanning it!

PurpleDaisies · 10/06/2021 10:09

@MrKlaw

so confusing. You only have to self isolate, but surely you're near all your family in the house so don't they also have to self isolate?
You’re officially supposed to try and isolate from your family at home but that’s not particularly practical in most cases.
osbertthesyrianhamster · 10/06/2021 10:09

@youngestisapsycho

I tell them I don't have the app and there is usually a paper log where you leave your name and number or they have their own code to scan. You can also, as friends have done, just pretend you are scanning it!
If you have an older phone, too, it might not support the app. What a shame, eh? That's too bad you can't use it. I went to a pub that had a paper log. People were having fun making up outlandish fake names.
NotSorry · 10/06/2021 10:10

You can also, as friends have done, just pretend you are scanning it!

I was wondering if that was what people were doing

XiCi · 10/06/2021 10:10

PP's are saying delete the app, but what do people do when they go to a restaurant (for example) and the restaurant is saying to check in with the NHS app (if they have deleted it)
They usually only ask 1 person out of the group so I stand back at let someone else check in Smile. Mind you having said that I haven't been asked to scan in the last few places I've been to.

We went to the races a couple of weeks ago and every single one of us got pinged on the app and told to isolate. There was a bloody Covid testing centre at the racecourse so everyone at the races, thousands of people, will have been told to isolate. My DH works on the site of a testing centre and they have all been told to delete the app or they will be pinged every day. Its so unreliable. If I have to download it again to sign in somewhere it will be deleted immediately afterwards

NotSorry · 10/06/2021 10:12

@XiCi

Some of the places we've been recently (as a family, so same household) have insisted we ALL have to scan - we've even explained we are same household and they say "you all have to scan" nowhere seems to have a consistent policy

TheSugarRefiner · 10/06/2021 10:15

@SlipperyDippery

It won't be someone who checked into the same restaurant, that's not what check-ins are for

Forgive my ignorance - what are the check ins for then?

Check ins are there to aid confirmed contacts and cases when trying to trace their prior activity. In some other countries banks are sharing card usage data with dates/times/location but it was felt that wouldn't go down well here so we prompt people to keep a diary of their activities in case they become a case/confirmed contact.
RichardMarxisinnocent · 10/06/2021 10:16

@NotSorry

PP's are saying delete the app, but what do people do when they go to a restaurant (for example) and the restaurant is saying to check in with the NHS app (if they have deleted it)
You continue to use the app the check in and if if you don't want to be contact traced you turn off contact tracing in the app.
NotSorry · 10/06/2021 10:19

@RichardMarxisinnocent

thank you!

Dollywilde · 10/06/2021 10:19

I deleted the app after our upstairs neighbour had covid and ours pinged despite the fact we were isolating at that time and hadn’t been out of our front door in 10 days (lead up to an operation). It’s not fit for purpose.

Hoppinggreen · 10/06/2021 10:23

@NotSorry

You can also, as friends have done, just pretend you are scanning it!

I was wondering if that was what people were doing

Me too, I wave my phone in the general direction of the QR code thingy and nobody has questioned it yet.
Orf1abc · 10/06/2021 10:27

This is ridiculous. If the OP worked away from home she'd now be losing ten days pay, based on a highly flawed app. How many people can afford to do that?

Yes, there is an isolation payment available, but the criteria is that narrow that most people don't qualify.

This is why people delete the app. It's not about not wanting to stay safe, it's about being able to pay the bills.

PseudoBadger · 10/06/2021 10:27

It is now a legal requirement for all over 16 year olds to either scan the QR code or leave contact details at designated premises

ILoveWillSmith · 10/06/2021 10:32

I work in a large hospital, I never downloaded the app as I knew it would probably ping me every day. The only members of staff I know who have downloaded it only did so because they're hoping to have some time off!

Notstrongandstable · 10/06/2021 10:33

I can't believe people are pretending to scan the app or leaving false details just so they can go to the pub!
Complete asshole behaviour

thenightsky · 10/06/2021 10:35

You've had both jabs, so I wouldn't worry.

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