Haven’t (yet) caught DD’s covid - when can i go back to work?

[RubaiyatOfAnyone]

I promise i’m not usually thick, but the changing rules have left me slightly confused, and in my defence i hid discussions of it quite early on for my own anxiety and so am a bit out of the loop.

Dd1 (7) tested positive last Saturday with a very faint line. She was quite ill on Sunday (day 1) with fever/drowsiness, but fine on Monday and has been fine ever since. However, her LFT on Thurs/Fri (day 5/6) was very strongly positive - the line came up the second the liquid reached it.

So - she has covid and will be isolating until she doesn’t 2-days-in-a-row or day 10, whichever comes first?

What about the rest of us? When are we officially “not going to catch it”? Dh, toddler dd2 and i have tested negative so far and none of us are ill. However i work with a lot of elderly people, and nursery has a “not if any family member has it” rule, so we’ve all been stuck at home this week.

At what point are we actually safe/ clear?

Probably not until around day 10 after exposure, certainly I know a few people who didn't develop symptoms until then and it's why the isolation period is 10 days. So that would be Tuesday for you (if you were unvaccinated you would have to isolate until then).
A colleague just had covid in her house for 3 weeks as their family all developed symptoms a week apart.
It's not a given though. I didn't get it when my ds had it recently.

I'm pretty sure the current guidance is that you do not need to isolate if you live with someone positive provided you are fully vaccinated.

Thank you both - yes, i was thinking Weds would be the first “safe” day.

I know the official guidance would mean i didn’t have to isolate at all (triple jabbed), but a) as i said, i work with very elderly colleagues and can’t risk passing it on, and b) it turns out you can’t just chuck two young kids in a pit with some frazzles and go off to work when they’re ill.

If triple vaccinated
And negative LFTs you can go about your daily business. For dd need to retest at day 6 and 8 until have. 2neg LFTs in a row. My dd with it just now for 2nd time - my LFT still looks negative.

If you can't work/nursery won't accept child of a close contact then I would say that ends whenever your DD finishes her isolation. There's always a possibility of you testing positive on day 11 (if she ends up doing the full 10 days) but there's absolutely no way of knowing that so all you can do is assume that you can resume when she does if you are still testing negative.

If you are vaccinated and in England you don't have to isolate unless you test positive. But you should test yourself, at least before you go out, as you are at risk of catching it from your DD.

As you can't leave a 7-year-old home alone someone needs stay in with your DD until she can go back to school.

We caught it from our DS within 3 days.
You have to test every day for 7 days.
Our other Ds never caught it.

She tested positive on Saturday so that is day 1.

If you are double vaxxed plus booster you should LFD test every day for 7 days from day 1 of your daughters positive test.

You can still go about every day business but be cautious around vulnerable people. You will be able to go back to work if you are negative, but your work might want to put a RA assessment in place (eg not working with particularly vulnerable people)

Omicron and especially BA.2 have a quicker incubation but it can be 10+ days in rarer cases. I’d stick to the 10 days and go in from day 11 if still negative - it’s lovely that you are cautious given your job, rather than sticking slavishly to what’s allowed by the rules

Just to say the day you test positive is day zero not one

When I tested positive in January, the day I tested positive was day 1 according to T&P.
In Scotland though so possibly different.

No one can answer your question as you are having to abide by rules set by your nursery and employer. You don't need to isolate if testing negative but you can't work if you have no childcare provision or your employer won't let you back. I work in healthcare and our regulations are that if we are testing negative and have been working in ppe and fully vaccinated we can work if we are a close contact but individual employers can obviously make their own rules

Thank you all. I know it’s not definitively answerable, more a “what have any of you done in similar circumstances”.

My understanding is the day you test positive is day zero (in England at least) so counting from then, if i continue to test negative i’m going back to work on Weds. today is day 7 and we’re all still negative except dd1.

it isn’t a rule for my work (i’m the manager) but it would be incredibly bad manners to go back prematurely when everyone has been so worried and so cautious about coming in.

Thank you again, it’s been really helpful to hear everyone’s takes on it.

You're the manager, aren't you supposed to know the rules? Or are you part of a larger company?

The Covid risk assessment must define "having someone at home with Covid" - ie how many days, surely?

Our covid policy states that you must abide by the governmental rules in place at the time, so currently close contacts do not legally need to isolate at all as long as they test negative.

My situation is muddied because i have to be at home with a sick child anyway, and as a great many of the people i work with are in their 80s, I thought it was worth asking for people’s experiences of returning to work under these circumstances. The variety of answers given above show that I am not the only one trying to work out the right way forward here.

For what it's worth, I didn't test positive until day 9 after sleeping in the same bed as my Covid positive child. Lateral flows were negative every day. PCR on day 9 when I started to feel a bit off was positive.