Notes from Plague Island

[white_hart]

Yesterday one of the people who was supposed to be in the office today mentioned that they'd had lunch with a family member last Friday who had tested positive for covid on Saturday, and they were doing daily lateral flow tests as per the current government advice and had been clear so far, but should they come into the office or would it be better to work from home?

I said that day 6 of 7 felt low enough risk I'd be OK with them coming in, especially as C is working fully remotely for now, so there is no need to worry about protecting her.

This morning they emailed to say that today's lateral flow was positive, so they would work from home. Two hours later, they messaged to say that actually, they felt grotty and were going to log off and go to bed.

I suppose now we know that it can take up to six days from exposure for tests to register a positive and symptoms to develop. Which is useful, especially as early information about omicron suggested the gap was much shorter.

Comments

[sfred]

That is useful information. I hope your colleague feels better soon.

[white_hart]

Thank you!

[nineveh_uk]

Poor them! I hope they feel better soon.

None of this mixed information makes your job of deciding what's reasonable any easier, I'm afraid.

[white_hart]

It really doesn't!

[serriadh]

I suppose the thing about omicron being so transmissable, but apparently with some of the same weird anomalies as earlier strains, is that you can't be absolutely sure it was the contact they know about that was the point of transmission. It's a minefield - we've had people living in the same house as a positive person and never getting a positive LFT, and people who only left the house to go round a supermarket (masked) and have now had a positive LFT. Luckily, among people I know at least, it's proving to be fairly mild (which still means on a par with a very nasty cold/mild flu) so far. And numbers have finally started to go down here *sigh of relief*.

[white_hart]

It's possible, though I know the person is generally quite cautious and would be especially so after a confirmed contact.

[antisoppist]

Well that's inclining me to drive to see my father and sisters 7 days before I go back there again for a funeral rather than going by train, tube, train, taxi.

[white_hart]

I think a more cautious approach would definitely be wise!

[perennialanna]

We have had pupils who have tested negative in the morning*, come in, started to feel slightly off-colour during the day, and tested positive as soon as they got home, having helpfully exposed a whole new batch of people.

*One group have been asked to test every day, no matter how they feel. Primary school pupils are not generally asked to test at all, for reasons which are proving increasingly specious.

[white_hart]

What? But surely the virus is synced to the Greenwich time signal and knows to only flip from negative to positive on the stroke of midnight?

[mountainkiss]

It is conceivable that they were infected later and elsewhere?

[white_hart]

It's possible, although they are generally very cautious and I think would be even more so after a confirmed contact.

[mrs_redboots]

It does vary quite enormously. We have no idea when or where my husband was infected - and really, if we hadn't known, we'd have just thought he had a slight cold (and he is 71 now, so in a fairly high-risk age group). And why didn't I get it? Our flat is far too small for us to live separately within it.....

I did read that when someone flies in from abroad and goes to the test centre in the airport, it's not going to pick up any infection he might have picked up on the plane... and so it goes.

I hope your colleague, wherever and whenever they were infected, hasn't already spread it round the office! And that they get well quickly with no after-effects.

[white_hart]

Fortunately, they hadn't previously been in the office - Thursday was due to be their first day back in, and they wanted to double-check whether it would be better to work from home if they'd been a contact.