Did something stupid -should I be worried?

[ml01omm]

Today I went to my 24 week midwife appointment.

I arrived at the GPs and had buzzed the intercom and was waiting to be allowed in.

A girl in her early 20s approached, looking upset and asked if she could use my phone to call her carer ( she did seem genuine and quite vulnerable) I unlocked my phone ( took a while as it decided it wanted my passcode) and entered the number she gave me, and when I looked up from my phone she had moved to stand right next to me. I had no where to move to. The phone rang through to voicemail, she said thanked me, handed the phone back and the door to the surgery finally opened so I could go in.

Whole transaction was maybe 2 - 3 minutes long at most.

It was only after I went in and sat down in the waiting room ( far far apart from anyone else) that I realised how stupid I was in standing so close to this woman. I just didn't think, as mentioned, she was upset, seemed like a very vulnerable person ( could see from our brief interaction why she might need a career/additional support) .

Now super worried about Covid infection. She didn't outwardly cough or sneeze, but I have read droplets can transfer just by speaking if you are standing close enough to breathe in the air. (I'm not worried about my phone, as I disenfected screen and washed my hands when I got home).

How worried should I be?

I am kicking myself as I have been so so careful in the last 2 months, I can't believe I just forgot so easily today.

I think you're very unlikely to catch it from 2-3 mins contact with someone who is not coughing. All of the tracking apps that have come out will only be airing people with more than 15 mins contact with a positive case I believe.

Make sure you sanitise your phone, and keep an eye on your temp if you're concerned but try not to worry!

Not worried at all.

The best estimates are that 1-5% of the population has had it over the past month. The vast majority of people have never had it. So probably way less than 1% of the population are infectious right now. Chances are she’s in the 99%.

Add into that the fact that, even when we were all interacting normally, the average infectious person passed it on to less than 5 people. And that was when we were seeing dozens or more people a day. So even if she was infectious it’s unlikely she passed it on to you.

The reason we are asked to socially distance ourselves is because the very small chance (fraction of a percent) from each interaction becomes big when you multiply it by hundreds of interactions each and millions of people. And then it can snowball. But the individual risk of each interaction is tiny.

Hope this helps. Don’t panic!

At first when you were describing the situation I thought you were worrying about a scam call! There is no need to worry about the virus, take normal precautions and don't think twice about it! x