Alert COVID-19

Please find service updates and current visiting rules in our COVID-19 section.

This site is best viewed with a modern browser. You appear to be using an old version of Internet Explorer.

Self-isolation

Information alert box Last updated: 6 September 2022

This is a fast moving situation and we will try to keep this page as up-to-date as possible.
Please continue to check national guidance on the COVID-19 pandemic.

If your question is not answered below, and you are a member of staff, please speak to your line manager or email covidquestions@ouh.nhs.uk

Current guidance

Self-isolation is a really important part of protecting yourself, your family and friends, and your colleagues.

If you are not feeling well, you are not expected to be at work. You should self-isolate and get tested using lateral flow tests.

Staff members who receive a positive LFD test result for COVID-19 - gov.uk

For these purposes, the date of your first positive lateral flow test, or the day your symptoms started, is Day 0.

If you test positive, you need to self-isolate and take a lateral flow test on the fifth and sixth day (24 hours apart).

If both of these tests are negative, you may return to work on Day 6 if you have no COVID symptoms.

If the Day 5 lateral flow test is positive, you should continue to test daily until you have received two negative lateral flow test results, taken 24 hours apart.

If you are still positive at Day 10, it is considered unlikely that you are infectious and you can return to work providing you are medically fit to do so.

If you work with patients who are especially vulnerable to COVID, you should have a risk assessment with your line manager before returning to work if still testing positive at Day 10.

You must comply with all relevant infection control precautions, and PPE must be worn properly throughout the day.

Contacts of positive cases

People who live in the same household as someone with COVID-19 are at the highest risk of becoming infected because they are most likely to have prolonged close contact.

People who have stayed overnight in the household of someone with COVID-19 are also at high risk.

Staff who are identified as a household or overnight contact of someone who has had a positive COVID-19 test result should discuss ways to minimise risk of onwards transmission with their line manager.

You can pass COVID to others, even if you have no symptoms.

Staff who are identified as a household or overnight contact of someone who has had a positive COVID test result should discuss ways to minimise risk of onwards transmission with their line manager.

This may include considering:

redeployment to lower-risk areas for patient-facing staff, especially if the member of staff works with patients whose immune system means that they are at higher risk of serious illness despite vaccination
working from home for non patient-facing healthcare staff
limiting close contact with other people especially in crowded, enclosed, or poorly-ventilated spaces.

Whilst you are in work, you must continue to comply rigorously with all relevant infection control precautions.