Isolation Guidelines (Excluding Vulnerable People)
If you live alone and have symptoms of coronavirus illness (COVID-19) – a new and persistent cough or a high temperature – stay at home for seven days from when your symptoms started.
If you live with others and you are the first in the household to have symptoms of coronavirus, then you must stay at home for seven days, but all other household members who remain well must stay at home and not leave the house for 14 days. The 14-day period starts from the day when the first person in the house becomes ill.
For anyone else in the household who starts displaying symptoms, they need to stay at home for 7 days from when the symptoms appeared, regardless of what day they are on in the original 14 day isolation period.
It is likely that people living within a household will infect each other or be infected already. Staying at home for 14 days will greatly reduce the overall amount of infection the household could pass on to others in the community.
If you can, move any vulnerable people out of your home (such as elderly and those with underlying health conditions) to stay with friends or family for the duration of the home isolation period.
If you cannot move vulnerable people out of your home, stay away from them as much as possible.
Ending Isolation Guidelines (Excluding Vulnerable People)
If living with others, then all household members who remain well may end household-isolation after 14 days. The 14-day period starts from the day illness began in the first person to become ill. Fourteen days is the incubation period for coronavirus; people who remain well after 14 days are unlikely in to be infectious.
After seven days, if the first person to become ill feels better and no longer has a high temperature, they can return to their normal routine. If any other family members become unwell during the 14-day household-isolation period, they should follow the same advice – that is, after seven days of their symptoms starting, if they feel better and no longer have a high temperature, they can also return to their normal routine.
Should a household member develop coronavirus symptoms in the 14-day household-isolation period (for example, on day 13 or 14) the isolation period does not need to be extended, but the person with new symptoms has to stay home for 7 days. The 14-day household-isolation period will have greatly reduced the overall amount of infection the rest of the household could pass on, and it is not necessary to restart 14 days of isolation for the whole household. This will have provided a high level of community protection. Further isolation of members of this household will provide very little additional community protection.
At the end of the 14-day period, any family member who has not become unwell can leave household isolation.