Asked by: Lord De Mauley (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government why any person who has tested negative for COVID-19 four days after meeting someone who has tested positive is still required to self-isolate for a further six days.
Answered by Lord Kamall
All contacts of a positive case who are fully vaccinated, under 18 years and 6 months, participating in an approved vaccine trial, or unable to have the vaccine for medical reasons are exempt from the requirement to self-isolate. Instead of needing to self-isolate, these contacts are advised to take daily lateral flow device (LFD) tests for seven days to help identify asymptomatic cases quickly to break chains of transmission.
It is only unvaccinated contacts of a positive case that are now legally required to self-isolate if notified by NHS Test and Trace or a local authority contact tracer, unless they are taking part in an approved Workplace Daily Contact Testing (DCT) scheme. If they are not taking part in a Workplace DCT scheme they do not need to take LFD tests. If they choose to take a LFD test and it is negative, they must continue to self-isolate, because they could still become infectious.
Asked by: Lord De Mauley (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government why anyone who is self-isolating but has had a negative COVID-19 PCR test is not allowed to leave self-isolation immediately.
Answered by Lord Kamall
Anyone notified by NHS Test and Trace or a local authority contact tracer that they have tested positive is legally required to self-isolate. People who have symptoms should self-isolate while they get a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test. If the PCR test is negative, they no longer need to self-isolate
Contacts who are fully vaccinated or between the ages of 5 and 18.5 years old do not need to self-isolate. They are instead advised to take daily lateral flow device (LFD) tests for seven days. If they receive a positive result on the LFD test, they should self-isolate and take a confirmatory PCR test. If the PCR is positive, they need to self-isolate for 10 days from the test date. If the PCR is negative, they can leave self-isolation but should complete the remaining LFD testing routine.
Unvaccinated contacts of a positive case are legally required to self-isolate if notified by NHS Test and Trace or a local authority contact tracer, unless they are taking part in an approved Workplace Daily Contact Testing (DCT) scheme. If they are not taking part in a Workplace DCT scheme and they choose to get a test, they must continue to self-isolate, even if the result is negative. This is because they could still become infectious.