No isolation when covid positive in March

[Whathefisgoingon]

I just cannot get my head around this.

As far as I know, no other country has announced this.

For two years they’ve told us that it’s dangerous and now they’re prepared to send me to work directly next to someone infected with covid?

I had always believed it should be more socially acceptable to simply stay home when sick, as too many feel forced in to work with flu etc, but this takes the biscuit.

I understand we need to find a way to get back to some kind of normal but this seems extreme.

Will this really happen in less than 2 months!?

Surely part of the reason you and others CEV have been offered these extra protection methods is because life has to resume as normal as continual isolation /testing/ restrictions aren't feasible long term

Thus is wring.

It is because there is only a five day window to start any of the indicated treatments, and so a kind of pre-qualification was needed.

It is required for covid unlike other infectious diseases it is in high circulation.

When levels reduce, then it becomes safer for everyone. Restrictions are needed when case numbers are rising (especially with a new variant whose diseaseepattern might not be fully understood for a few weeks) or remains stubbornly high, to an extent which puts extreme pressure on NHS.

Dd2’s school are threatening to send kids home this week due to the number of staff off with coved (SEN school). The sooner they stop isolating the better. It’s all very stressful when classes have to change and extra (unfamiliar) staff need to be brought in.

Good. I can't wait.

We can't isolate perfectly well people for the rest of time. It's unsustainable.

I personally will never test myself again unless I am required to i.e in a hospital or for travel.

@Lovemusic33

Dd2’s school are threatening to send kids home this week due to the number of staff off with coved (SEN school). The sooner they stop isolating the better. It’s all very stressful when classes have to change and extra (unfamiliar) staff need to be brought in.

It's also stressful being ill after weeks of exposure and watching class numbers fall as Covid spreads. I think it's unfair to assume they are all at home perfectly healthy. Lots of people are still getting symptoms, myself and many of my colleagues included. Probably because of the high level of exposure in schools.

@Lovemusic33

Dd2’s school are threatening to send kids home this week due to the number of staff off with coved (SEN school). The sooner they stop isolating the better. It’s all very stressful when classes have to change and extra (unfamiliar) staff need to be brought in.

There are a number of staff off at the school I work on.

None are absent due to isolation.

All are at home as they are too ill to be in work.

Shortening isolation won't help at all, except perhaps to unreasonably increase pressure for ill staff to return before they are fully recovered, which may well result in further illness absence further down the line.

We can't isolate perfectly well people for the rest of time. It's unsustainable.

Those who are ill can stay at home, but the rest should not be forced to isolate!

We can't isolate perfectly well people for the rest of time. It's unsustainable

Reductio ad absurdam

No-one is looking at this is perpetuity, just the next steps and what is wise when in peak winter virus season and cases numbers remain very high (despite no longer rocketing)

@Blubells

We can't isolate perfectly well people for the rest of time. It's unsustainable.

Those who are ill can stay at home, but the rest should not be forced to isolate!

I agree. But I think most people just naturally isolate anyway when they are feeling very rotten.

It's not normal or sustainable though to isolate asymptomatic people or those who have very mild symptoms.

@UnmentionedElephantDildo

We can't isolate perfectly well people for the rest of time. It's unsustainable

Reductio ad absurdam

No-one is looking at this is perpetuity, just the next steps and what is wise when in peak winter virus season and cases numbers remain very high (despite no longer rocketing)

This is end of March isn’t it? So no longer winter peak season

No-one is looking at this is perpetuity, just the next steps and what is wise when in peak winter virus season and cases numbers remain very high (despite no longer rocketing)

It isn’t being planned for peak winter virus season. End of March is spring.

@Omicrone

Of course this was going to happen at some point, you can't keep isolation forever!

If you are not poorly, you can go to work, the same as if you have any other virus that you don't have any symptoms for.

What's the problem?

It is HIGHLY infectious.

It is HIGHLY infectious.

But infectious just means that it spreads quickly.

It says nothing about the severity of the virus?!

@Blubells

It is HIGHLY infectious.

But infectious just means that it spreads quickly.

It says nothing about the severity of the virus?!

Exactly if it’s highly infectious but people on the whole are having minor or no symptoms 🤷‍♀️

It has been interesting - I have had Covid recently - how surprised people have been that I have not only tested positive, but also been genuinely ill. Everyone I work with, despite being triple vaccinated, been too poorly to return to work ‘early’ - perhaps a function of viral load within a school - but they too report the surprise others show. It shows how effective the ‘it’s just a cold’ messaging has been, whatever the actual truth in terms of symptoms.

Like the ‘minor or no symptoms’ post before mine - I know no adults I work with for whom this has been anything other than a nasty illness that has required multiple days in bed or similar.

The common cold is HIGHLY infectious.

So is Norovirus. Flu. TB.

We don't isolate and lockdown for those.

Dd1 Teacher has been off for 3 weeks now. I would say she is pretty poorly. Two parents friends are struggling too.
Their children had mild symptoms though

@cantkeepawayforever

Like the ‘minor or no symptoms’ post before mine - I know no adults I work with for whom this has been anything other than a nasty illness that has required multiple days in bed or similar.

I've had a few days in bed many times in my life though for all sorts of coldy/fluey bugs. Not pleasant, but nothing more.

@cantkeepawayforever

Like the ‘minor or no symptoms’ post before mine - I know no adults I work with for whom this has been anything other than a nasty illness that has required multiple days in bed or similar.

Everyone I know has had no symptoms or at the most an afternoon of headache and temperature. I don’t know anyone who has had to take to their bed. We would have all been in work if it wasn’t Covid. Maybe Omicron is regional in its effects? I know of a few people that caught a variant back in 2020 and still haven’t got their smell and taste back though.

Everyone I know has had no symptoms or at the most an afternoon of headache and temperature.

Data is more relevant than personal anecdotes.

@Calist

Loads of kids are going into school with covid because parents aren’t testing. How likely is it really that, in a class of 30, 1 child and 2 staff members test positive and NO other children? Very unlikely, but that’s what we’re being asked to believe.

I don’t blame the parents at all by the way and I support the end of testing and isolation.

This. We tested our DS 5 last week purely because his teacher was off school with Covid and we're shocked when he was positive he's complete asymptomatic and we wouldn't have know if we hadn't of tested him. Now he's been stuck in while feeling well and it's made me wonder how many other mums are actually testing their kids if they are otherwise well and have no symptoms why go looking for a problem?! I find it hard to believe he is the only one off currently in the class with Covid, I just think no one is testing when they don't have to and I don't blame them.

Maybe Omicron is regional in its effects?

Throughout, viral load has been one factor - infections are so high in schools that, with no mitigations, viral load will generally be high for teachers facing classes. That may impact on how severely ill my colleagues snd I are getting.

@Tealightsandd

Everyone I know has had no symptoms or at the most an afternoon of headache and temperature.

Data is more relevant than personal anecdotes.

True, but that goes both ways... We can all be guilty of focussing on those anecdotes that "prove" the point we're trying to make.

@cantkeepawayforever

Maybe Omicron is regional in its effects?

Throughout, viral load has been one factor - infections are so high in schools that, with no mitigations, viral load will generally be high for teachers facing classes. That may impact on how severely ill my colleagues snd I are getting.

This is exactly what has floored me. I've been constantly exposed to a high level for weeks, as when numbers of children in school dropped classes were merged rather then closed due to staff shortages. I even had children sent in obviously unwell, having been given Calpol. Now I'm bedridden, exhausted and feel really ill and I'm not the only one.

It's also stressful being ill after weeks of exposure and watching class numbers fall as Covid spreads. I think it's unfair to assume they are all at home perfectly healthy. Lots of people are still getting symptoms, myself and many of my colleagues included. Probably because of the high level of exposure in schools.

The mini "firebreak" resulting from each isolation will have led to this stretching over weeks. Without it, you'd all most be back at school again with Covid behind you until the autumn term (notwithstanding the possibility of another evading variant like omicron arising before then).