Will isolating be abandoned?

[OutOfBounds]

If numbers of positives do sky rocket as is looking very likely- will all asymptomatic or mildly ill positives just have to continue working?

I know this happens to some extent in the NHS but will other essential services have to do the same to stop the whole county falling apart?

CEV excepted & families too I would hope!

No

If you are I'll then how would that be right? Mistakes would be made, more people infected. I wouldn't be able to concentrate on my job very well if I knew I was positive!

Well if you're asymptomatic you might not have tested anyway so wouldn't know. But in terms of once you've got a positive test, no, I can't see isolating being abandoned anytime soon. Maybe in another twelve months or so assuming no break out variants, but now, in the midst of omicron? Not a chance in hell.

Which bits of the NHS are allowing covid positive people to work?

Generally they won’t allow household contacts of positives into work unless they absolutely have to.

I don’t think so. I wasn’t aware the NHS allowed staff with an active case to attend work? I don’t think that’s true and wouldn’t be a great idea really would it?

I do think there will be a point some time in the future where testing will be scaled back to only happen at the request of an HCP based on clinical assessment so people with covid will likely be milling around as usual but I don’t think we’re going to see that any time soon.

At some point I expect it will become like the common cold, not yet though.

I think it should be cut to 5 days for the moment, unless you're still ill or have a fever after that point.

Then ditched all together.

Never mind wether it's allowed or not.... how about if you are feeling rough and need to be off, regardless of staffing levels!

I suspect so eventually. The timescale I'm not sure about but we can't keep treating it so differently from other illnesses. Personally I worked when I had covid (from home) because I wasn't ill (March 2020)

@ILookAtTheFloor

I think it should be cut to 5 days for the moment, unless you're still ill or have a fever after that point.

Then ditched all together.

why five days? Is there clinical evidence to back that up?

Apologies if I've got the wrong idea re NHS & positive tests!

At what point is it critical that eg railway staff come to work if they feel well enough?

In about 5 years maybe

If the projected numbers are in the right ball park (and I appreciate that that is a big if) pretty much everybody in the country will have Covid by the end of December.

If we insist on quarantine for all cases, there will be nobody working in hospitals, police, emergency services, retail, public transport, food supply etc. There will also be nobody working in test centres or labs. At best, society will grind to a halt. At worst, we will have mayhem.

The likelihood is though that as a result of limited testing capacity (tests, labs and people) asymptomatic and mild cases will not be confirmed so these people will continue to work.

Who will make them come in to work? Are you saying employers will force them in if ill?

At what point is it critical that eg railway staff come to work if they feel well enough?

A last man standing scenario I should think. Fwiw, I don’t think it would happen in an industry like the railways but possibly for core infrastructure - electric, water, sanitation etc. Currently, for that scenario to become relevant, the shit would really have had to hit the fan so let’s hope we don’t find out eh?

@HeatonGrove, even with extremely high infection numbers it’s highly unlikely that the whole workforce will be ill/isolating at exactly the same time.

I don’t doubt we’ll see the effects of staff shortages due to covid but I don’t think it will be as dramatic as complete collapse. Creaking yes, collapse no.

Railways probably a bad example, there are lots of cancellations already in Scotland because of staff shortages, just thinking of the onward impact on core infrastructure.

I'm not for a minute suggesting people work if they're ill!

Yes, it would be a shit hits the fan scenario- but it gives me some comfort that we'll still keep the lights on...

Ds tested positive last week. He was a little poorly for less than 24 hours for the first 24 hours then back to his usual self. Grateful it was short lived but I find hard it hard to believe he is contagious for 9 more days after this.

His symptoms were not even the main three. Only tested as Dp had covid.

@OutOfBounds I suspect that staff would be shifted around to cover severe shortages in other areas. I suppose these jobs are specialised so it’s not a massive pool of people to pull from but they’re also not quite as exposed as professions like HCP’s and teachers so can benefit more from mitigations.

A whole lot of people are isolating with no illness or nothing that would have kept them off work two years ago. And still cases rise. I think the day will come when isolation ends, and you are just off sick if need be, but not in the near future.

I thought before omicron came about plans were being drawn up for April next year to end routine testing and and at some point an end to isolating and treating it like any other illness.

NHS If you have a positive case in the house then you can come into work if you have a negative pcr, you then test daily lft and if you stay negative you come into work. Been like that for a while. they couldnt afford for covid contacts to be off isolating.