Support for residential settings

Isolation

Isolation process

Got coronavirus symptoms?

Step 1) Start isolating

  • You for 10 days
  • Household for 10 days

Step 2) Book a test

If negative for Covid-19

  • Household stops isolating immediately
  • You stop isolating if you feel well

If positive for Covid-19

  • Share contacts via NHS Test and Trace

What if you have been in close contact with someone who tests positive?

Step 1) ALERT - You may be alerted by NHS Test and Trace

Step 2) ISOLATE - For 10 days after close contact, and if you develop symptoms, go to Step 3

Step 3) BOOK A TEST - Household isolates for 10 days

If negative for Covid-19

  • Household stops isolating immediately
  • You complete 10-day isolation

If positive for Covid-19

  • You begin new 10-day isolation
  • Household completes 10-day isolation

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Isolation guidance

Staff and young people should isolate as soon as they start to display symptoms. They should arrange a test and staff should not return to work whilst waiting for the test results.

If a positive result is confirmed, close contacts should be identified and they should also be instructed to isolate. A ‘contact’ is a person who has been close to someone who has tested positive for COVID-19 anytime from 2 days before the person was symptomatic up to 10 days from onset of symptoms (this is when they are infectious to others). For example, a contact can be:

  • people who spend significant time in the same household as a person who has tested positive for COVID-19
  • sexual partners
  • a person who has had face-to-face contact (within one metre), with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19, including:
    • being coughed on
    • having a face-to-face conversation within one metre
    • having skin-to-skin physical contact, or
    • contact within one metre for one minute or longer without face-to-face contact
  • a person who has been within 2 metres of someone who has tested positive for COVID-19 for more than 15 minutes
  • a person who has travelled in a small vehicle with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19 or in a large vehicle or plane near someone who has tested positive for COVID-19

If the positive case did not display symptoms then the date of the test should be substituted for the date they showed symptoms.

It is a legal requirement to stay at home and self-isolate following a positive test result for COVID-19,  and for contacts of someone who has tested positive. Failure to comply with these requirements may result in a fine of up to £10,000.

If a young person tests positive or is required to isolate as a close contact you should inform their social worker, school and parents (if appropriate).