How to not catch covid when it’s in the house?!

[Cloud44]

Has anyone managed to not catch it recently when someone in the house has had it? If so how did you manage it?

Cousin and husband. She caught it, she was pretty ill so stayed in bed, effectively isolating. He slept in the spare room and never caught it.

DH has had it 5 times...both DS and I have managed to escape it. DH moves into spare room as soon as symptoms appears.

I had it last week. Tried not to cough on teenagers. They hid in their rooms as per usual. No signs of them having caught it.

What about shared spaces like kitchen and bathroom etc? I know it’s 2024 and just one of those things like any other illness that’s going to go around but could do with everyone not catching it right now!

As many open windows and doors for as long as (safely) possible throughout the day. Copious hand washing. Make sure everyone has their own towels and wash them regularly. Try to avoid each other.

And use Dettol spray, the one that kills viruses as well as bacteria. Have a can of that in every shared space and get everyone to spray it around liberally and regularly, including on taps.

I'm immune-suppressed and someone in my family seems to have covid every six months! It's the same with flu, bad colds etc.

In our (adults and older teens) house the ill person stays out of the kitchen completely and gets meals brought to them. They wear FFP2 or 3 masks when walking through the hall to and from the bathroom.

For bathrooms you can keep the fan on to clear the air, open all windows, clean surfaces. Also you can time when people go in - if everyone's going in last thing at night, have the ill person go in last and leave the window open and fan on so the room is really well aired before the next person does.

It's not really just one of those things like any other illness unless you include some quite nasty illnesses under 'any other illness'. The short term acute symptoms can be pretty mild but the increased risks of long covid, strokes, heart attacks and so on mean YANB-at-all-U to want to avoid passing it on or catching it unnecessarily.

I had it last year. DH and DS didn't get it, not even a sniffle!

DH is immune suppressed so when teen dc got Covid we followed instructions from his doctor. Teen with Covid stayed in her bedroom and had sole use of the closest bathroom. I brought her all food and drink and removed all trash from the room. I wore masks and gloves when entering her room and while handling her dishes and trash. I cleaned kitchen surfaces before removing my gloves and then washing hands. DH wore a mask when not in our bedroom.

a separate time i brought home Covid. Same protocol. DH moved out of our room. I stayed in our bedroom and used en-suite. Teen and DH left me trays with food just inside door while wearing masks and gloves. DH of course caught it anyway because he had been exposed by sleeping next to me and kissing me before I knew I had it, but we tried. We couldn’t expect teen to care for us completely which meant we could not stay in our room entirely, so masks were required of all household members in communal areas. We coordinated so that we did not leave our bedroom to go to kitchen when teen would be there. DH and I used disposable plates and cups because we were not up to washing and needed to minimize time in the kitchen. Teen learned to order food online and order groceries online since we did not prepare any food for her for several weeks. Both DH and I got very sick, which was not surprising given his official extremely vulnerable status and my just generally awful health.

so basically, we stopped spread by maintaining internal quarantine and using masks and gloves plus cleaning. We always have stashes of the necessary supplies in our house.

There's a spray called first defence, I poo pooed it. Until everyone in the house has had covid multiple times and I stay away use this spray and so far it's worked!!

Or maybe I'm immune as I was hospitalised in 2020, I'd recommend the spray over that route.

I have just had Covid but DH and DD did not catch it. I moved into the spare room as soon as I tested positive. I have worn a FFP2 mask the entire time I am out of the room - I work from home so had to carry on working at my desk. There has been lots of hand washing, eating separately, keeping distance etc. luckily I wasn’t too bad so wasn’t sneezing or coughing a lot. DH has been testing daily as we are due to see his parents this weekend and 6 days after I tested positive he is still negative as am I.
Mind you it is possible that one of them gave it to me in the first place but they didn’t have any symptoms 😀

Thank you everyone, keeping fingers crossed it can be avoided! How often did you use first defence @startstopengine ? Is it too late to start it once it’s already in the house?

I had it this year a d so did older child. I slept on the sofa in the living room. Avoided dh and younger son. They did not get it.

When my 4 year old had it I caught it but husband and 2 year old didn’t. No attempt to stay apart and they stayed negative. Husband had been vaccinated a couple of months previously but 2 year old hadn’t (and had never to our knowledge had Covid before). 2 year old even drank out of 4 year olds water bottle before we could stop him a couple of times!

It's worth a go!!

Does anyone know how many days people are most contagious with the current varient?

My youngest had it 10 days, my other DS is on day 7 and I'm on day 5. It horrendous.