Outbreak at work. Could’ve been avoided with isolation!!!

[Dandy008]

Work colleague came in to work last week whilst her husband was at home, positive with Covid.

She was doing daily LFT’s and had been for a PCr test at the beginning of her husbands isolation.

Monday she was in work, Tuesday morning she got a positive LFT.

Yesterday 4 other colleagues have also had positive LFT’s.

Surely it’s got to have been spread by the lady who’s husband had Covid? Perhaps her LFT’s were just late in showing her positive?

I just cannot understand the logic behind not having to isolate when someone in your household is positive.

Thankfully I’m not affected by this as it’s in a different office to me!

If you are double vaxxed and have a negative PCR you don't have to self isolate where I live
And I won't be ,unless the government is going to pay my wages

@HungryHippo11

I do agree. A good balance might have been that you have to isolate if a family member tests positive, but not for a close contact e.g. colleague, someone you went for lunch with. When they announced the new rules for isolation I assumed it only applied to cost contact, not household members.

Agree with this.

Especially as they spent lots of time at the beginning telling us households were the highest place of transmission.

I work in a school and we were told that anyone double jabbed no longer has to isolate unless they have symptoms or a positive test. If someone in your house tests positive you don't need to isolate. I suppose they know the jab won't stop it so best to carry on if hospital numbers aren't too high.

But best for who, Maryboberry?

should that be whom?

Honestly, it's been obvious since late July they want and expect everyone to be infected. The plan is to to rely on the vaccine wall.

In fact, the idea is to have more outbreaks right now rather than have them in peak flu season.

If you haven't had covid yet you will do jabbed or not and if you have had covid you will catch it again in due course. At least the jabs tilt the odds in your favour

Agree with a lot of you - I’m v much in favour for getting rid of the isolation rules in general and working towards living with COVID with the exception (for now) of household cases.
We can’t live our lives worrying that going out to a restaurant and going into work is going to have us isolating at home for 10 days repeatedly, often needlessly, when we are vaccinated but as an interim they should have kept the household rules.
I wonder if they will row back on that.

@walksen

Honestly, it's been obvious since late July they want and expect everyone to be infected. The plan is to to rely on the vaccine wall.

In fact, the idea is to have more outbreaks right now rather than have them in peak flu season.

If you haven't had covid yet you will do jabbed or not and if you have had covid you will catch it again in due course. At least the jabs tilt the odds in your favour

Yes who knows, perhaps the numbers show that adding isolation for household cases reduces the R by a certain amount and then results in the peak of this wave coming too late in the autumn/ winter. I’m sure it’s a VERY delicate balancing act.

I wouldn’t be surprised if once we are in peak flu and winter vomiting bug season when the Covid peak would be particularly disastrous if they add back in this mitigation. I have to say, it wouldn’t be the end of the world for most of us. As long as bubbles are gone and “pingdemic” is gone (because we can’t live like that long term) I think household isolation isn’t too much of an imposition over the medium term.

But Woodfort, couldn't someone catch Covid now and get it again in January?

Is is a major problem for some of they can't go to work for 10 days
It would less to less testing
If the government are serious about people isolating they need to compensate people for lost pay

@Mistressiggi

But Woodfort, couldn't someone catch Covid now and get it again in January?

Sure but don’t all the stats and the projections the government uses etc suggest that this is less likely? Just as having the vaccine provides SOME protection, so does infection, that’s why proving you’ve had Covid fairly recently counts under many of the vaccine passports schemes. Vaccination plus infection undoubtedly reduces the chance you’ll get it again in the short to medium term and even if you do get it, it shouldn’t be as bad as the first time (there will be exceptions!). Isn’t that what the government has been doing this whole time - trying to engineer when the peak happens? That’s why they delayed freedom day until July but didn’t want to delay any further as coinciding with schools going back wouldn’t have been ideal.

I think it would be absolutely fascinating to be in on one of the meetings and see the real projections.

@user1487194234

Is is a major problem for some of they can't go to work for 10 days It would less to less testing If the government are serious about people isolating they need to compensate people for lost pay

Sure but it wouldn’t be nearly half as bad as it was throughout the last 18 months until 2 weeks ago though would it? It would still be a huge improvement and would mean far less people isolating countrywide at any given time.

There are arguments against - like time missed at work and at school and I wouldn’t be in favour of household isolation long term (we don’t do that for any other illness) but I don’t think it’s too bad as measures to bring back in the autumn/ winter. I’m strongly against a new lockdown.

They don't care if you catch it now. In fact they realise that they cannot now have herd immunity because of people who are vaccinated can still transmit. So its a case that EVERYONE will catch it.
They don't want you to isolate. They want you to spread it now.
Whether you agree with it or not, that is the plan.

The losers in this will be the children that are not vaccinated. Anyone in society that can't have the vaccine.
They are now of the mind that even most CEV children or adults have been vaccinated.
The spread now is inevitable and if you haven't had it, you will.
End of.

@AlexaShutUp

I agree, OP. I think we should still be isolating household contacts. One of dd's close friends will be going to school as per the new rules, but her mum is sick with covid. So we'll have to wait and see how long it takes to pass it around amongst the kids. The mother of another of her friends is CEV and I can only imagine how stressful that must be for both her and the dc.

Dd2 had a PCR this morning, as her LFT came up positive last night. If the PCR comes back positive then she has to isolate, but it seems that DD1 should still go into school ? Seems barmy to me, I feel she should be at home too, not risking giving it to others in school.

Their only concern is overwhelming the NHS but they will have some isolation in order to drip feed the virus through the population.

I think lots of people just won't test if they can't afford time off work

So many people "cant understand" why people wouldnt isolate if a family member was ill...."
Why not?
Is it beyond imagination that some people cant afford not to get paid for 10 days (minimum - if multiple members of your family get it) or are self employed, or their employer expects them to work.

It's much easier to "do the right thing " or "use common sense" or be "unselfish" if you can either wfh, get paid adequately , or your financial situation isnt in jeopardy.

Just because the government says you need not isolate doesn’t mean you shouldn’t. I have full sympathy for those whose employers require them to work or can’t afford to isolate but that was an issue causing people not to isolate even before the rules changed. However the fact is that cases are much higher now than they were then . My DD went away with friends for 2 days and 5 out of 9 (all at least single vaxxed and some double) tested positive after. She had negative LFTs but we both isolated until her test came back negative, because we didn’t want to be responsible for spreading it any further. Seemed like a no brainer when we could.

I would add the so called pingdemic was caused by two things, an over sensitive app that most people who were working in jobs with a lot of contact, even the scientists, switched off. The other reason was actual increasing numbers of a more virulent strain of Covid. The one could have been fixed by the government admitting earlier the app was rubbish (which they sort of did by not making isolation compulsory after) so we didn’t have so many people isolating unnecessarily (mainly it seems in small businesses who didn’t appreciate what bigger companies were doing or the NHS who had to stand by government policy). The latter could, and could still, be dealt with by effective test track and trace but we have never had that. So it is on individual conscience - hence it is not going well……

@fizbosshoes

So many people "cant understand" why people wouldnt isolate if a family member was ill...." Why not? Is it beyond imagination that some people cant afford not to get paid for 10 days (minimum - if multiple members of your family get it) or are self employed, or their employer expects them to work.

It's much easier to "do the right thing " or "use common sense" or be "unselfish" if you can either wfh, get paid adequately , or your financial situation isnt in jeopardy.

This. My boyfriend caught covid from someone he works with. (His manager) He had to use the last of his holiday to cover as much of his isolation as he could as they don't pay sick pay. His manager is salaried so was absolutely fine. There is no way on earth he would have isolated if it had been a household member other than him. Statutory sick pay is a joke.

“Living with Covid” is a ridiculous name for the current strategy. My friends and family who live in places where they have lower infections are living with Covid. They have been able to go out, to spend time with friends, go to work (including healthcare settings) and live normal lives without the worry and reality of getting ill with Covid. The correct term is having “lives restricted by the threat of or getting ill with Covid possibly repeatedly” I’m one of the lucky ones that got it without symptoms and yet I have suffered for 18 months with crippling ear pain, like someone is hammering a nail into the cartilage. My DS hasn’t been able to eat anything but bananas for nine months because everything tastes of shit. My DD gets together for a couple of days with friends for the first time in two years and five of them end up with a virus they describe as way worse than flu.

That is the reality of “living” with flu because we have a government in the grip of libertarian right wing ideology that won’t make the slightest effort to control infection

@Savoretti

You are still supposed to isolate when someone in your house is positive

You need to read the new rules, that’s not correct. If someone in your household tests positive, if you’re doubled vaccinated or under 18 you do not have to isolate now.

I agree that not isolating household contacts - accompanied by proper financial support - is mad. Studies are showing that with Delta the vaccinated shed and transmit just as much as the unvaccinated, so pegging the change in isolation rules on being double vaxxed is a red herring.
My employer has made it clear that no one with a positive case at home should come into the office, but our work can be done just as well from home. I really hope other employers are doing the same.

My employer has made it clear that no one with a positive case at home should come into the office, but our work can be done just as well from home. I really hope other employers are doing the same

Nope. Even if my whole household are ill with covid, my boss will expect me in teaching every child in the school every week at close contact!