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What exactly does self-isolate mean?

(75 Posts)
polyester57 Sun 01-Mar-20 18:53:26

Exactly that. Do you shut yourself in and rely on your own supplies? What do you do if you work? Tell them you are self-isolating beause you think you may have been in contact with someone who was on a ski-ing holiday in Italy and you are now off work for two weeks on full pay? Do you never go out? What about walking the dog?

ReadyMeals Thu 05-Mar-20 20:19:14

I'd probably have severe cabin fever. Omg it must have been awful for the people on the cruise ship who had the inside cabins without even windows.

Oopsadaisy3 Thu 05-Mar-20 20:16:01

readymeals well done , you did it all in the correct way, could you have lasted for 2 weeks though?

ReadyMeals Thu 05-Mar-20 20:13:21

Oopsadaisy I actually did that successfully when I had norovirus and didn't want my husband to catch it. I stayed in the bedroom with ensuite bathroom and my husband left what I needed outside the door for me to pick up. I stayed in there two days without seeing another being, finished by having a good shower, hairwash, complete change of clothes, cleaning up the room a bit and he never got it!

Callistemon Thu 05-Mar-20 19:44:23

Would a dishwasher not be hot enough to kill all germs?

Callistemon Thu 05-Mar-20 19:43:23

Oh goodness.
I'm nearly elderly

varian Thu 05-Mar-20 19:41:16

Aparently the poor elderly person who has died because of coronovirus was actually only 75. That's scary. 75 is not what I'd call elderly.

Oopsadaisy3 Thu 05-Mar-20 18:51:46

On the radio today, they are now saying that the virus can still be active up to 72 hours on surfaces.

Self isolation is one person in a room alone, meals left outside the door, all towels and bedding kept separate and the last to use the bathroom, which they then have to clean thoroughly, or it would be me doing it with mask and gloves and copious amounts of bleach!
Then all cutlery and crockery to be cleaned separately too. Ideally a separate bathroom would be kept for their sole use.
Doesn’t sound like a lot of fun does it?

endre123 Thu 05-Mar-20 18:23:05

I think we have to take it seriously, someone elderly died today from catching it from someone else. I find that shocking.

The PM is not much use. He's not keeping up with medical guidelines, unless he wants many elderly to die. I have no faith in him. Other countries took action much faster than Britain.

ginny Wed 04-Mar-20 17:23:26

Ok , thanks.

ReadyMeals Wed 04-Mar-20 17:23:01

Yes, and of course these people who were added today actually had the infection 2 days ago or more as that is how long the test takes to come back in most cases.

GrannyGravy13 Wed 04-Mar-20 17:07:34

I think it is the total number of confirmed cases ginny

ginny Wed 04-Mar-20 16:40:26

Is that 85 who have it now or have a number of those already recovered ? Makes a difference.

humptydumpty Wed 04-Mar-20 14:36:10

ReadyMeals I have just seen on BBC:

The number of coronavirus cases in the UK has jumped by 32 since this morning, to a total of 85.

ReadyMeals Wed 04-Mar-20 14:20:28

Oh! And as I listened to the news it just did! up from 53 to 80-something

ReadyMeals Wed 04-Mar-20 14:02:07

I am preparing my daughter that we might have to stick to video calls rather than visits for a while... I think once the UK gets to more than 10 new cases a day I will be thinking along those lines

Callistemon Tue 03-Mar-20 19:36:37

That could have been fun!!

GrannyGravy13 Tue 03-Mar-20 18:59:21

The only time we have panicked about self isolating was a few days ago when we had three GC here.......us and them for 14 days.....sadangrywinewine

Xrgran Tue 03-Mar-20 18:44:07

I think the virus can last about 6 hours on something like a glove and double that for metal surface unless it’s heated above 25 degrees.

Mumben Tue 03-Mar-20 17:24:42

publichealthmatters.blog.gov.uk/2020/02/20/what-is-self-isolation-and-why-is-it-important/
This link to Public Health England is useful

ReadyMeals Tue 03-Mar-20 11:30:50

Humpty-dumpty the advice is not to put your rubbish out unless some intermediary can double-bag it without touching it. Isolated people should keep their rubbish bags in with them until someone can safely double-bag it with an uncontaminated bag. If you can't do that, keep it with you until about 9 days after you are no longer infectious as that is about how long the virus can live on a plastic bag

DoraMarr Tue 03-Mar-20 11:14:17

* humptydumpty* the current thinking is that the vírus does not survive for long on surfaces. It needs a human host.

Callistemon Tue 03-Mar-20 11:09:21

COVID-19 is the official name for it, Urmstongran, as it wasn't named at first and there is a whole family of Corona viruses around.

SARS is another one as is MERS, and I think now that this novel one has a name, it's used to avoid confusion.

humptydumpty Tue 03-Mar-20 11:07:36

I'm confused about the rubbish! Can't the virus be spread on surfaces? In which case, wouldn'dt the bag of rubbish left outside have traces of the virus on it?

ReadyMeals Tue 03-Mar-20 10:42:29

It's not yet a national emergency but it feels to me like a personal emergency, as I think I stand a high chance of dying when I get it. I am in the process of overhauling my will and showing DH how to use the washing machine.

Urmstongran Tue 03-Mar-20 10:39:40

I think the media are whipping it up. Started calling it Covid-19 now as it sounds more scary!

I don’t think any government in any country is being uncaring. The bottom line right now is no one knows how this is going to pan out so any advice can only be best guesstimate.