How long should I stay away

[Doseydots]

We have just come back from holiday. We went away with another family. We arrived home on Monday evening. The day we returned, the DD of the other family tested positive for COVID. My mum went into hospital while we were away, I haven’t been to see her because of the positive test. But I am not sure how long to wait. All our family are negative, I am desperate to see her, but I don’t want to risk my mum catching it.

I'd want to wait at least a few days or a week, although in theory the incubation period is 14 days! I'd probably get a few good (FFP3) masks in though. Lateral flows miss about half of positives so I wouldn't just trust those. You can buy singles of masks like 3M Aura ones from places like thefacemaskstore - not cheap but much much safer than wearing no mask or a flimsy blue or fabric one. They won't protect people properly if you actually have covid as they need to be professionally fitted for that, but they're a good extra layer of protection if you're testing negative and have no symptoms, but might still be incubating it.

Thank you. It’s so hard not seeing her, especially as I am doing everything else as normal. She’s come home today so I am hoping she’s not picked anything up from the hospital.