To think this is madness!

[Madwife123]

Daughter 1 became ill on Friday, LFT was positive. She had a PCR on Saturday and found out today she has covid.

Have done lateral flow tests on the rest of the household today and awaiting results. Have also done LFT on us all.

Foster daughter 1 has a positive lateral flow so expect her PCR to be positive

Foster son 2 LFT is negative. He has no requirement to isolate as he is under 18 and so test and trace have said he can go to school tomorrow and doesn’t need to wait for the PCR result to do so. Despite being in daily contact with 2 positive cases and being unvaccinated.

I am vaccinated so I can go to work tomorrow. As I work for the NHS with vulnerable patients work ask me to have a PCR first. So if my PCR comes back negative I can go to work despite being in daily contact with 2 positive covid cases, 1 of which is sleeping in my bed and coughing literally in my face.

How on earth does this make any sense! No wonder it’s spreading so much right now!!

That should say have also done PCR. We’ve all done PCR tests but no result yet.

No different than if they had norovirus, chicken pox, flu etc all of which has the potential to be quite severe for someone vulnerable

@Wellbythebloodyhell

No different than if they had norovirus, chicken pox, flu etc all of which has the potential to be quite severe for someone vulnerable

^this

Are you sure you are allowed to go to work? In my health board I would be told to work from home for 10 days (as well as being told to do 2 PCRs and daily LFTs).

You’re right though, it is madness

We’ve got pupils coming in to school who have positive family members. It’s the guidelines now.

While I do agree it is all madness, as someone who had to send my son to school with two positive cases in house and a partner who is in and out of people’s houses, how long can we isolate everyone who tests negative for living with someone positive? Forever? Because my daughter and I caught covid from my daughter’s school, but my husband and son didn’t, despite not distancing from us whatsoever. Should my son have missed out on 2 weeks of education and my husband lose his job, because they live with us? We’d lose everything because my husband has just started a new job.

My heart told me we should all isolate and I did keep my son home until he tested negative on PCR. But he did lose four days of education for a virus he never ended up catching.
We cannot go on like this forever.

Hope everyone feels better soon.

@Wellbythebloodyhell

No different than if they had norovirus, chicken pox, flu etc all of which has the potential to be quite severe for someone vulnerable

Actually I wouldn’t be working with vulnerable newborns in that case!

@FlyingFlamingo

Are you sure you are allowed to go to work? In my health board I would be told to work from home for 10 days (as well as being told to do 2 PCRs and daily LFTs).

You’re right though, it is madness

Yep negative PCR means in work and daily lateral flows for 10 days. I work with mostly unvaccinated pregnant women and newborns.

It’s madness.

We have several teachers at my school who have positive children/spouses at home who are still teaching classes of 30 at close range-the parents obviously have no idea.

Yes can’t believe you are allowed to go in before you get a negative PCR test result. That is very weird in a health care setting!

@Vallmo47

While I do agree it is all madness, as someone who had to send my son to school with two positive cases in house and a partner who is in and out of people’s houses, how long can we isolate everyone who tests negative for living with someone positive? Forever? Because my daughter and I caught covid from my daughter’s school, but my husband and son didn’t, despite not distancing from us whatsoever. Should my son have missed out on 2 weeks of education and my husband lose his job, because they live with us? We’d lose everything because my husband has just started a new job.

My heart told me we should all isolate and I did keep my son home until he tested negative on PCR. But he did lose four days of education for a virus he never ended up catching.
We cannot go on like this forever.

Hope everyone feels better soon.

I understand we can’t go on like this forever but the system we have now the cases are crazy so it’s clearly not working. We are extending the time we have to keep doing this for.

I understand the close contact thing ending where you isolate coz you were in the shop around the same time as someone else etc. But when it’s in the home, children who don’t social distance are infected it seems madness that the other unvaccinated household members don’t isolate.

@BBOA

Yes can’t believe you are allowed to go in before you get a negative PCR test result. That is very weird in a health care setting!

Sorry if it wasn’t clear. I do need a negative PCR. Unvaccinated foster son doesn’t, he can go in school while waiting for the result.

I agree, it doesn’t make any sense. It appears to be some sort of ridiculous punishment for those who have not had the injections. (You can go about your business but they can’t in the same scenario)

No one cares anymore. DH is a Headteacher in a secondary school. It is raging through the school- staff and children. He has to inform the local public health board when it hits a certain number/% and they just said 'Yes, it's the same in lots of schools. Just keep going.' He is really struggling to staff the school- had 13 supply staff in every day last week which is having a big impact on behaviour. Using TAs to teach classes. It's mad really.

I work for the NHS on a ward. We definitely can’t go to work if we have household cases for ten days.

If it’s a contact outside the house we have to PCR and get a negative and then lateral flow daily but can go to work if vaccinated.

I thought this was standard NHS policy to be honest

I agree i think household contact that everyone should be able to stay home and isolate but now people are now being encouraged to go to school/work even if it feels wrong as government policy. No wonder our cases are so much higher that Europe even with vaccination rates.

www.nhsemployers.org/news/updated-guidance-nhs-staff-self-isolation-and-return-work-following-covid-19-contact

This guidance states you shouldn’t be going to work?

caught covid from my daughter’s school, but my husband and son didn’t, despite not distancing from us whatsoever.

This is the maddening part - you are supposed to self isolate away from positive cases. There should be a rule about parents and sibling who can’t isolate away from each other, not attending school or working from home. It’s entirely different if they can stay in their rooms.

@Sprostongreen21

www.nhsemployers.org/news/updated-guidance-nhs-staff-self-isolation-and-return-work-following-covid-19-contact

This guidance states you shouldn’t be going to work?

From this link: "Please note: If the staff member is living directly (same household) with a positive COVID-19 case, they will be asked not to come to work. This will remain under review. There may be times when it is appropriate for the staff living with a positive COVID-19 case to return to work, inline with government guidance, in a risk-assessed way, but this should be through a process agreed with an appropriate senior decision maker, for example director of public health or director of infection prevention and control."

@BluebellsGreenbells

caught covid from my daughter’s school, but my husband and son didn’t, despite not distancing from us whatsoever.

This is the maddening part - you are supposed to self isolate away from positive cases. There should be a rule about parents and sibling who can’t isolate away from each other, not attending school or working from home. It’s entirely different if they can stay in their rooms.

But the husband and son didn’t contract it. (Possibly already immune) Why would this madden you?

I'm sorry but If whole households needed to isolate every time had continued then people would simply stop testing, I know I would, its not sustainable. Theres 5 of us in my household, imagine we were unlucky enough to catch it at separate times and not from each other, that's 50 days off work and school self isolating, losing money we can't afford to lose , children missing education they can't afford to lose, THEN having to possibly repeat that scenario every year as covid will never go away.....no thanks. Baffles me that no one seems to address the downsides that multiple isolations bring, the elephant in the room everyone ignores all for the greater good and social moral conscious

Your situation is pretty unusual by the sounds of it (working closely with the vulnerable, in a clinical setting).

The rules are a generally applicable measure, and have long past their usefulness for most in most settings.

But perhaps in your case, your employer should have more specific guidance to offer. You should talk to them.

This is perhaps a case of having rules leading to a less safe outcome overall.

@Reallybadidea Yep and the director of infection control at my trust has authorised staff to be in work following a negative PCR.

I think at the very least they should be asking for daily lateral flows. My son recently tested positive I went about my business but did daily lateral flows which then picked up my infection. Don’t know if it’s the same in England as here but a negative pcr on day 2 is meaningless as far as I’m concerned.

It seems an interesting route they have taken just before winter which is bound to be epically rough this year with the reappearance of flu etc as well, but here we are, yes if working with vulnerable people it seems like madness.

[quote Madwife123]@Reallybadidea Yep and the director of infection control at my trust has authorised staff to be in work following a negative PCR.[/quote]
That seems crazy but I'm guessing your staffing levels are critical? It's not what is happening at my Trust - rightly so IMO. Several staff have developed covid in this situation following an initial negative pcr.