29th December 2021, Dr Chee L Khoo
You must be pretty confused by now about what you are meant to do if you come into contact with someone who has tested positive or indeed, you end up being positive yourself. The rules for testing and isolation is constantly changing but as of today (29th December 2021), these are the rules.
1.Casual contact
You are a casual contact if you have come into contact with a COVID-19 positive person for a short period of time. You might find out through your workplace, your education facility, or directly from the COVID-19 positive person. You need to consider the duration of contact, how close you were to that person and whether either or both had masks on the whole time. You will not be contacted by NSW Health if you are a casual contact.
What must you do?
- Get tested for COVID-19 immediately and self-isolate until you get a negative result
- Get tested again on day 6 after your last contact with the COVID-19 positive person. If you feel well, you do not need to self-isolate while waiting for this test result.
- If your first test is more than 4 days after your exposure to the person with COVID-19, and your result is negative, you do not need to get the second test.
Casual contacts who have a rapid antigen test (RAT) each day for the 7 days after their last contact with a COVID-19 positive person, are not required to have PCR tests or self-isolate as advised in this guidance.
You should monitor for any symptoms for at least 14 days after your last contact with a COVID-19 positive person. If you develop symptoms at any time, isolate and get tested again as soon as possible, even if you have already received a negative test result.
2. Close contact
You may be contacted by NSW Health that you are a close contact of someone who tested positive. You may have been informed by a friend, a family member or a colleague at work that you were exposed as a close contact.
What must you do?
- Self-isolate for 7 days from the time you last had contact with the covid-19 positive person. If you are a household close contact who is unable to separate from the COVID-19 positive person, you must self-isolate with them until they are released from isolation,
- You need 3 PCR swabs – one immediately, on day 6 and on day 12 again.
- You can leave self-isolation after 7 days if your test on day 6 is negative, you feel well and you have had no further contact with a COVID-19 positive person
- Limit activity for another week. For the following 7 days, please limit exposure to other people if possible especially exposure with people at high risk of severe covid-10 – older family people and people in high risk settings (health care, aged care, disability care and correctional facilities).
If you live with a person who you cannot keep separated from (e.g. a child or carer where alternative arrangements cannot be made), they do not need to self-isolate with you, but they should not attend high-risk settings (health care, aged care, disability care, early childhood centres, primary school and correctional facilities) during your 7 day self-isolation period. If they work in one of these settings, their employer may do a risk assessment to allow them to return to work.
3. If you test positive for covid-19:
You must self-isolate for 10 days from the day you were tested (not when you think the day of exposure is).
When can I leave isolation?
No symptoms on Day 10
You can only leave self-isolation after 10 days if you have no symptoms in the 72 hours before your 10 days is finished. Even if you have no symptoms in these 72 hours, you must still continue to self-isolate for a full 10 days. You will receive an SMS from NSW Health after 10 days but you do not have to wait for this SMS to leave self-isolation if it has been 10 days since you were tested.
Still symptoms on Day 10?
You can be released from isolation after 14 days provided you don’t have fever for the previous 72 hours, there have been substantial improvement in your respiratory symptoms and you are not immunocompromised.
If you still have symptoms in the 72 hours before your 10 days is finished, please call the NSW Health COVID-19 Care at Home Support Line on 1800 960 933 for further advice