COVID-19 at St Mary’s – updated guidance December 2022

The school will tell you if your child has come into contact with a confirmed case, and what actions you should take but currently, children and vaccinated adults do not need to isolate if they have been in contact with a confirmed positive case.

Here are some guidelines based on the latest guidance: –

• If you have symptoms of COVID-19, you are no longer required to do a rapid lateral flow or PCR test.
• Most people cannot get free COVID-19 tests. You can buy tests in shops but you cannot report the result to the NHS.
• People with COVID-like symptoms are advised to stay at home until they feel better, so this could be less than five days.

What to do if you have symptoms

Try to stay at home and avoid contact with other people if you have symptoms of COVID-19 and either:

• you have a high temperature
• you do not feel well enough to go to work or do your normal activities

Take extra care to avoid close contact with anyone who is at higher risk of getting seriously ill from COVID-19.

You can go back to your normal activities when you feel better or do not have a high temperature.

• However, if adults do decide to test and get a positive result, then they are asked to stay at home for 5 days. They are also asked to avoid anyone who is particularly vulnerable for 10 days.
• For those aged 18 or under, they are asked to stay at home for three days.
• For both groups, this starts from the day after they did the test.