Jake, a Master’s student living in Brighton, is in the middle of a 20 day isolation.
“At the end of our first 10-day isolation we were all joking and saying “oh we’re gonna get it again, haha, we’re gonna have to restart”, and then that’s exactly what happened.” After his housemate attended one of the first Castle Street parties, Jake and co. settled into ten days of isolation. On day ten, someone else tested positive, restarting the cycle, although “we have no idea how [they got infected].”
This was especially frustrating, seeing as “if we had gotten tested [on day nine], and gotten a positive, we wouldn’t have to do another ten days.” Jake said that it was just part of the rules: “It is what it is… we jinxed it.” He was frustrated that a 24-hour window just cost him ten days of freedom, with no change in who actually has or doesn’t have covid. “I think the rules are a bit stupid, yeah, but there’s a point to it.”
The rules themselves have confused many students - one told Critic Te Arohi that trying to figure them out “made my head spin a little”. As of the 3rd of March, the Government’s guidance was that anyone who tests positive, or lives in the same house as the positive case and stayed at least one day or night when they’re around, must self-isolate for 10 days. However, people who live in the same “group accommodation” as a positive case (e.g. halls of residence, boarding houses, hostels, backpackers, etc.) do not have to isolate, as they’re not household contacts.
Anyway, with that mess out of the way, if someone in your flat comes down with Covid, you have to isolate with them for 10 days. You have to get tested as soon as you get symptoms, or on days 3 and 10 otherwise. There’s a handy website, where you can order free RATs for your flat now, to pick up from the testing centre on Malcolm Street. You can also get free rats on Malcolm Street if you know where to look.
If more people in your flat get Covid-19 within that 10 day period, you don’t have to re-start your isolation period - as long as you test negative on day 10 and you don’t have any symptoms, you’re free to go. So while a Covid party may sound fun to “get iso out of the way,” don’t do it, because you may not get Covid immediately. If you get Covid on day 9, you still have to isolate for 10 more days. If you get it on day 11, congratulations, you’ve put your whole flat in isolation for 10 more days!
On a side note, for those of a hornier disposition: those who stay the night with a positive case are, also, strangely, not household contacts but close contacts. So, technically, a positive case’s flatmates will legally need to isolate (under Section 70 of the Health Act 1956, on pain of a $4,000 fine and a stern telling off from Daddy Bloomfield). However, if you’ve only had a steamy, passionate one-night stand with the same positive case, you won’t. There is, technically, a Section 70 order requiring you to “report… and submit to medical testing for Covid-19”. The Ministry of Health advises that you only do this if you’ve got symptoms. But long story short, if you fucked someone who has Covid, you’d be a fucking idiot to not get a test and isolate. You’ve had your fun.