Conservative isolation period

[fungibletoken]

Hi all - a few family members have just tested positive and we have a newborn. How long would we ideally leave it before seeing them again, to be comfortable they're no longer contagious?

I know a while back the recommendation dropped from 10 days to 5 but I wonder if that was a bit of a compromise on the government's part in terms of not keeping people off work and school longer than might be necessary, as a small number of people might still be contagious at 5 days. Shall we suggest 10 days from symptoms/positive test to be pretty safe or has the thinking moved on? Thank you!

If I knew I was positive, I think I'd go out and about as normal after 5 days but I don't think I would go near anyone I knew was vulnerable for 10 days. Hopefully your relatives would be cautious and not visit for 10 days without you having to ask? Especially if they have tested in the first place.

Thanks @sproutsandparsnips! That sounds sensible, and reassuring that it doesn't seem unreasonable for me to insist on 10 days if necessary. You'd hope they'd err on the wife of caution but seems people's thinking can go a bit funny when babies are involved 😅 I said to DH in passing that we presumably wouldn't be seeing them next weekend with it being within 10 days and he said "good luck with that!"!

Just ask DH to tell them and get a new date in - they may be assuming that it's only five days. Sounds like they're considerate enough to test and act on it. I haven't seen anything that's changed from only 1/3 no longer being infectious after five days. Most of all, congratulations on your baby!

Gov guidelines is 5 days but adds that 10 days for vulnerable so find that and refer they to guidelines! Congratulations!

Thanks both! 😊 Really helpful to be able to point to the guidelines, too.

I had this situation when my son was born, with both my parents, my mother in law, sister in law and her husband having covid! We waited the 10 days and they had to have a clear test before they could see them which they were all considerate about and in agreement with. Though this was 18 months ago when people were a bit more cautious about covid than they are now!

Oh no, @gentlemum - what timing! It was rife then, wasn't it? March 2022 was the only time DH and I have tested positive throughout the whole thing. I hope that wasn't too disappointing, or even gave you a bit of welcome downtime.

@fungibletoken yes it was much worse then! Half of their isolation period was in the last few days of pregnancy and then I had to stay in for a few days (no visitors allowed anyway because of covid!) and then I was actually pleased to have a few days to ourselves so it actually kind of worked out well! Hope you and your family come to an agreement about how long to wait