Will they actually go ahead with the not having to isolate?

[Needtogoonholiday]

Do we think that it will actually happen in March. The not having to isolate if you've got it?

I wonder if testing will stop?

To be honest I think a lot of people aren't bothering to self isolate now,particularly if they don't get paid if off work
If it's a choice between feeding the DC and paying your mortgage who can blame them 🤷‍♀️

I wish they'd just say that if you have it don't go to any indoors public venues (shops, workplaces etc).

At least let people go for a walk where there is zero chance of transmission. If I get it I'll be walking around the park.

A lot of you are missing the point. The fact you are inside for 10 days might be frustrating, but isolation is not to protect you or make you feel better or give you time to recover, it's so you don't spread covid to a more vulnerable person. It's for their benefit not yours. So whether you have mild or heavy symptoms is irrelevant. Having said that, I do think we need to remove the need to isolate, and I do have a clinically vulnerable relative. I'm scared for them, massively sympathetic for other vulnerable people too, but I can't see at this stage what else we can do.

@Pyriah

The difficulty with restrictions being removed is that illness is no longer taken seriously, and if you’re genuinely ill with Covid you aren’t guaranteed any time off work. My husband had Covid recently and was quite poorly, his employer was furious and said ‘I had it myself, it was nothing more than a mild flu and I never stopped working’, ‘George in Marketing currently has Covid and he’s working from home and back at work after five days’. Meanwhile my poor husband was actually really poorly and not capable of working for over a week, and he got disciplined for not working from home because ‘Covid is mild now’.

That's not so much a covid problem but rather a shit employer problem!

If he was disciplined for being off sick, I would be seriously looking for a new job.

If you are ill then you are ill. Doesn't matter what's wrong but you are too ill to work.

I'm a childminder who's had to close my setting because of a positive case in my household as those are the rules placed upon me, that's no earnings for me and disruption to several very understanding families. Yet if anyone in those families test positive they can still send their littlies to me.
The rules are backwards and have made it impossible to learn to live with it this week. I've been living in fear of another positive case in the household due to the financial implications on my family and the huge disruption to the families who use my service touch wood we've evaded it so far.
Whilst my adult child has been symptomatic he's been able to isolate away from us.
Covid has devastated our family for many reasons from losses of loved ones and cancer diagnosis I'm numb and whilst I can relate to those who've also lost loved ones or whom are CEV in order for us to learn to live with it then the isolation and rules placed upon us need lifting.

I really hope so. I've just survived 8 days of isolation with two entirely asymptomatic children. It's not going to work as a long term strategy.

Also- vast swathes of people aren’t isolating anyway. They’ve moved around, shopped and travelled with covid and admitted it. Pointless exercise. They can’t even do it for £750 so they certainly won’t do it for free!

I work in a school. A lot of staff have been too ill to work with it. Some, including a member of senior leadership now have long Covid and have been unable to work for months. Some of course have been mild and have been doing online lessons from home but it's not the majority so it seems that this won't help and will just result in more people off sick

Yes, I and hope so. Covid will be treated like any other illness. People who can work will do so, those who are too poorly will stay at home. Like it is already the case with colds, flu, chicken pox, stomach bugs…. And that applies to teachers too, I don’t really understand where the problem is.
As for employers who do not like employees taking sick leave, that’s a completely different issue and has nothing to do with covid. Once shouldn’t force asymptomatic people to isolate for a few exceptions that will always exist covid or not covid.

My child only had a headache for less than 24 hours (hence user name at the time) and we now all feel like caged animals. The other one is a bit tired and floppy but could still have done school. Husband is completely fine. All 3 positive. First day or 2 was okay but they're upset about missing friends, clubs, and really want to just go out . This feels like unnecesary torture! I'm struggling to work with them around. Noone has tested negative on day 5 despite low symptoms so we're stuck in this weekend too ....

I wouldn't be complaining if this was like early covid (or mayve lots of people were asymptomatic then but we weren't testing?)

@Littlehouseonthefairy

I hope so. I disagree with isolation when you aren't even sick.

Totally agree.

Yes, they will end the isolation requirements in March, at least in England. Not before time either.

This twattery of so many people who often aren't even ill having to stay at home for days on end needs to stop.

People will adjust. There will be no choice.

This will be a good thing, and exactly what is needed. I know the doom-mongers will be circling now waiting to disagree though. They have enjoyed lockdowns and isolation too much and are now losing their prize.

The difficulty with restrictions being removed is that illness is no longer taken seriously, and if you’re genuinely ill with Covid you aren’t guaranteed any time off work.

That's not a Covid problem but an employer problem. Decent employers will be understanding.

Yep. I’m not testing any more (unless it’s before a 5 day stint of nights at work then I might).
My DD has it at the moment and despite being well after just one day of illness, she’s missed a week of school. Absolutely stupid, am never testing her again

It's quite refreshing to read all of these posts.

I seem to be surrounding by people who are terrified of Covid and it makes life very difficult.

Or perhaps it's just that the ones who are very fearful are the ones making the most noise.

Isolation seems a bit pointless given that all of us were out and about before knowing we even had it. Common sense is in order.

I think too that the free LFT tests have to come to an end. They are causing a lot of the problems and must be creating an enormous amount of environmentally damaging plastic waste. For no really good reason in most cases.

‘ If he was disciplined for being off sick, I would be seriously looking for a new job’

tigger1001 they said Covid “is not a serious illness any more”. I think there’s a general assumption that Covid is mild now, there’s been so much publicity about new variants being milder and lots of people have had mild symptoms. So when someone does get really ill with Covid they get called a liar and a slacker.

I think it'll be like other illnesses- eg schools generally ask you not to send in children with a temperature, 48 hours after sickness , chicken pox wait till scabbed over etc
When my kids had covid they were too poorly to have gone to school if there had been no legal requirement anyway and I'd have kept them off at least five days based on how poorly they were (this was delta though)
I had omicron at Xmas and would have had a few days off which would have backed onto a weekend meaning if no isolation I would likely still be off anyway while most infectious
I don't think people will be in work and school if unwell and I imagine there are already a lot of asymotomatic cases out and about as I think most people are mainly testing if symptomatic now

I got the last box of LFTs at my local Boots, when they've run out that's the end of testing in my house. We'll use them if we're visiting very elderly relatives just to be on the safe side, but that's it.

I hope so, my daughter had it with no symptoms at all, if i hadn't have randomly tested her i wouldn't have know she had it, so she missed school when she was fine, plus over half her class have already had it inc the teachers, thankfully everyone was fine with it, a few just had cold like symptoms for a few days, most kids asymptomatic.

@Flaxmeadow

For those who choose to be unvaccinated it's going to be a tough one. Guess they will just have to keep testing all the time maybe?, but it might be expensive for them because I doubt tests will stay free. Can't see what else Gov't or the NHS can do for them now

Why? Are they saying the rules will be different for vaccinated / unvaccinated?

I think it will be hard for a lot of people to give up the regular testing and the idea of isolating. I think I might keep a box or two of LFT aside for when I see those in my family that are 80+ but that will be it, and even then I guess that will gradually fizzle out too. It’ll be a change!

I only ever did asymptomatic tests after a contact when I thought I could miss a gruelling set of shifts at work. I’m not prepared to tolerate the disruption any more.
And some mums I know, their kids had it then they had it and have ended up stuck indoors for ages with no one to take the kids to school - bonkers and pretty cruel

@Siameasy that's us, it's bonkers. Caught it from my dc but now I can't take him to school even though he's well over it.

I’m isolating as I tested positive earlier in the week, both kids also positive but with no symptoms. Everyone is stuck at home bored, missing out on life. I won’t be testing again and I don’t blame others for not testing either.

We need to end the isolation now and get on with it, we are all vaccinated and Covid is much milder than it was previously. The vulnerable are sadly going to suffer, but I don’t think there’s another way out of this.

@catchingzzzeds

I think so and it's probably the right time. I do worry about schools though, most children have mild symptoms and would probably manage school but the staff are suffering harsher symptoms and I think the majority would be unable to work for a few days. We currently have large numbers of staff and students out with COVID and are on the brink of asking a year group a day to stay home. There are simply no agency staff available and we're already using LSAs and SLT. If we start welcoming COVID positive students in I think the situation can only get worse. We had large numbers of staff test positive before Christmas and some of the same are off again with it now. 3 of the team have been diagnosed with long COVID. It's a mess.

Realistically I don't see it will be any worse, if the kids currently get covid are already in school spreading it before they show up as positive

@Pyriah

‘ If he was disciplined for being off sick, I would be seriously looking for a new job’

tigger1001 they said Covid “is not a serious illness any more”. I think there’s a general assumption that Covid is mild now, there’s been so much publicity about new variants being milder and lots of people have had mild symptoms. So when someone does get really ill with Covid they get called a liar and a slacker.

That's still an employer problem though. People can and do get really ill with a cold even though for lots of people it's a sniffle.

If you are ill, then you are ill. You phone in and say you are too poorly to work. Doesn't matter what illness you have.

It will be very likely that people going forward won't know if they actually have covid as I can imagine testing will stop along side not needing to isolate.

We can't keep isolation rules just so shitty employers can't shirk sickness rules.