Close Contact Question

[PinkSparklyPussyCat]

I was in the office on Monday and one of my colleagues started to feel ill that evening and had a PCR yesterday which was positive.

I know I'm supposed to do a LFT each day but is it for 7 or 10 days? The NHS says 7 but when I checked the government website it says the following and I don't understand what it means:

'take an LFD test every day for 7 days, or until 10 days since your last contact with the person who tested positive for COVID-19 if this is earlier'

I last saw them on Monday so I'm presuming I needed to take LFTs from Tuesday to the following Monday, is that right?

Yes the 10 day thing comes into play if for example you only find out after say 6 days in which case you only need to do 4 tests instead of 7

Thanks. So I saw them Monday, they started getting symptoms Monday night, had a positive PCR yesterday. I presume that means I can do my last LFT next Monday (providing I don’t test positive of course)

When did you do your first lft? If you started doing the LFT on Tuesday then yes last one will be Monday but if you didn't start till Wednesday then you do the last one on Tuesday

I did it Wednesday. I don’t understand why that would make a difference though, regardless of when I started I haven’t seen my colleague since Monday! Surely it should be 7 days from the date I saw them.

Having read the government ‘guidelines’ again I’m not even convinced I’ll be classed as a close contact as we have a Perspex divider between us. Obviously I’ll act as though I am but it’s so hard to tell.

You are also supposed to have a PCR test.

You test for 7 up to a max of 10 days since you last saw them so yes you will test up to Tuesday and no in England now Test and trace only recommend 7 days of lft unless you get symptoms or a positive, you don't need a pcr.

Thank you. I don’t know whether I’ll be contacted or not, I just want to make sure I’m doing the right thing. I’m lucky to have got this far without having to think about it before!