Isolating following app notification

no.1swimmum

Late on Thursday evening, my husband had a notification from the NHS app to say that he needs to isolate for the next 9 days.  He immediatly contacted his employers on their health line (his employers are a London airport), and explained giving all the relevent information from the app, and his work rota etc, the nurse he was speaking to was fine and told him to stay indoors etc.

Both Yesterday and today he has recieved phone calls from his employer, asking him to return to work as part of a trial of those isolating, is this normal - can they ask him to return to work despite notification to isolate - he has been doing lateral flow tests every other day so far negative.  Basically is this legal for them to keep ringing him pushing him to return to work despite being in isolation.

Thank you

KxMx

There is a pilot underway currently as an alternative to self isolation, results are expected late summer.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-to-launch-40000-person-daily-contact-testing-study

I've no idea how one officially enrols however. Perhaps 119 could advise? I assume it is through the NHS and not employer. 

powerful_Rogue

My organisation does this as well. A lateral flow which if negative will cover you for 24 hours and allow you back work, go outside etc. This is carried out daily for the duration of the isolation period.

It's a voluntary scheme, however I took part in December after getting a notification from the NHS app saying I needed to isolate for four days.

superbigal

Does not appear you meet the criteria as App notifications excluded.

Anyone who is identified as a contact by NHS Test and Trace as a contact will be offered to take part in the study. This won’t include people identified as a contact through the NHS COVID-19 app or through an informal channel. A person will be eligible to take part if they:

• do not have COVID-19 symptoms
• live in England
• are not in full-time education
• are aged 18 and over
• are not under the quarantine rules for arriving in England

cheshirelabrador

superbigal said:

Does not appear you meet the criteria as App notifications excluded.

I seem to recall the media reported an exception was made for Michael Gove.

silvercar

App notifications are excluded as they are not legally binding. 

Given they rely heavily on Bluetooth, they ping people on opposite sides of a wall, so people in adjacent flats may get pinged. And they don’t know if you are masked in full PPE outdoors on a windy day or in a sealed room.

regular testing and some common sense may be called for, rather than blindly following the app notification.

onashoestring

Exactly what happened to a friend of mine - last year she was unable to leave home for 2 months due to health reasons (not Covid related) but during that time her app pinged notifying her that she had been in contact with someone who had tested positive. She lives above a small supermarket and so can only assume that someone from the shop below had tested positive . 

Tokmon

onashoestring said:

Exactly what happened to a friend of mine - last year she was unable to leave home for 2 months due to health reasons (not Covid related) but during that time her app pinged notifying her that she had been in contact with someone who had tested positive. She lives above a small supermarket and so can only assume that someone from the shop below had tested positive . 

The App is supposed to determine distance by Bluetooth signal strength, but if what your saying is correct then it can't be as good as they say if it can't determine that the signal from someone through a floor is diminished enough that the contact can't be close enough to cause transmission. 

But as others have said some common sense needs to be used and part of that is turning it off when you don't have your phone with you or are at home. I have no idea why she left the Bluetooth contact tracing on when she was at home and wasn't planning on leaving!.

silvercar

Tokmon said:

onashoestring said:

Exactly what happened to a friend of mine - last year she was unable to leave home for 2 months due to health reasons (not Covid related) but during that time her app pinged notifying her that she had been in contact with someone who had tested positive. She lives above a small supermarket and so can only assume that someone from the shop below had tested positive . 

The App is supposed to determine distance by Bluetooth signal strength, but if what your saying is correct then it can't be as good as they say if it can't determine that the signal from someone through a floor is diminished enough that the contact can't be close enough to cause transmission. 

But as others have said some common sense needs to be used and part of that is turning it off when you don't have your phone with you or are at home. I have no idea why she left the Bluetooth contact tracing on when she was at home and wasn't planning on leaving!.

Agreed, I can think of numerous situations where phones are in contact but people are not. At work we occasionally all leave our phones at the charging station for a few hours and go off and do our work. We all should have turned our track and trace off, but if 2 people haven’t they could easily ping each other.

pete-20-11

Tokmon said:

onashoestring said:

Exactly what happened to a friend of mine - last year she was unable to leave home for 2 months due to health reasons (not Covid related) but during that time her app pinged notifying her that she had been in contact with someone who had tested positive. She lives above a small supermarket and so can only assume that someone from the shop below had tested positive . 

The App is supposed to determine distance by Bluetooth signal strength, but if what your saying is correct then it can't be as good as they say if it can't determine that the signal from someone through a floor is diminished enough that the contact can't be close enough to cause transmission. 

But as others have said some common sense needs to be used and part of that is turning it off when you don't have your phone with you or are at home. I have no idea why she left the Bluetooth contact tracing on when she was at home and wasn't planning on leaving!.

It’s probably less likely to happen now. They made some changes to the app to measure the signal strength over a period of, I think, a few seconds. So if the signal is strong, weak, strong, weak, it’s likely the other person is far away. If the signal is consistent it’s safer to guess the distance without it being too inaccurate.

Flugelhorn

onashoestring said:

Exactly what happened to a friend of mine - last year she was unable to leave home for 2 months due to health reasons (not Covid related) but during that time her app pinged notifying her that she had been in contact with someone who had tested positive. She lives above a small supermarket and so can only assume that someone from the shop below had tested positive . 

she obviously knew she was OK if she hadn't been out but am puzzled as to why people have the app on if they aren't going out or going to be anywhere near anyone?