Confusion still reigns when asked what to do if you’ve had contact with a positive, even though it’s been months since the outbreak of the pandemic. First of all, we need to start with some definitions, such as what is meant by close contact and what is the difference between isolation and quarantine.
Who is a close contact?
To answer this question, it is necessary to refer to the Ministry of Health. It is close contact:
- a person who lives in the same home as a Covid-19 case or even someone who has had direct physical contact with a positive.
- Those who have touched a handkerchief used with bare hands also fall into this category,
- or who has spoken for more than a quarter of an hour at a distance of less than two meters with a positive person.
- Even someone who has been indoors without wearing personal protective equipment with a positive person.
- Anyone who has traveled by plane to places close to a positive coronavirus case is also considered close contact.
- However, it is always the health authority that must confirm or not the status of close contact.
What is the difference between quarantine and isolation?
Quarantine concerns healthy people who come into contact with a positive, who could potentially be exposed to infectious risk. The goal is to monitor the possible appearance of symptoms. Those in quarantine must avoid contact with anyone for the duration of the coronavirus incubation period.
Isolation, on the other hand, affects confirmed cases of Covid-19 infections, which have therefore been positive for molecular test. They must separate from the community, also isolating themselves from cohabiting relatives.
I came into contact with a positive: what to do?
The first thing to do is to enter quarantine immediately. So stay at home, isolated from others as much as possible. We typically find that we have come into contact with a positive because the local health care company contacts us or because the positive person is warning us. The new trend is to swab only those who have symptoms, even mild ones, after contact. Who remains asymptomatic can come out of quarantine:
- after 10 days undergoing a molecular or antigen test which must be negative;
- without any tests if you wait 14 days.
If you test positive, even if asymptomatic, quarantine becomes isolation. If you remain asymptomatic, the isolation lasts for ten days from the results of the swab. At this point another tampon can be made. If negative, you get out of isolation.
Even those with mild symptoms can undergo a new test days after the results of the first swab, if there have been no symptoms for at least three days.
Those who have developed severe symptoms are managed directly by the Local Health Authority or by the hospital if hospitalization was necessary.
What if my close contact has had contact with a positive?
This question is the most insidious. Basically what should I do if my child has had positive contact with a friend of his? Or what if a colleague of my husband has come into contact with an infected person? To quarantine is only the close contact of the positive. So in the case of the wife, it will be only the husband who will have to be in quarantine and not her. In the sense that there is no legal obligation. However, there is the risk that then she could be infected by her husband and going to work she could do the same with her colleagues. Everything changes of course if in the example in question the husband were to turn positive. In that case he goes into solitary confinement and she goes into quarantine and so on.
I came into contact with a positive and Immuni tells me
In this case there are no rules that apply throughout the national territory. In short, it depends on the region in which you reside. Many have not developed ad hoc protocols. However, the Ministry of Health recommends that anyone who has been reached by an application notice to get in touch immediately with their family doctor or pediatrician.
My child came into contact with a positive at school: what to do?
The school has decided to have different rules. This is where the school contact person for Covid comes into play. In case of a positive pupil or teacher, he will send to the Prevention Department the list of classmates and other teachers who came into contact with the positive case in the 48 hours preceding the appearance of the first symptoms. The Department will decide on a case by case basis, also deciding to prescribe tampons. The days for any quarantine or isolation start from that of the absence of the positive case and not from the result of the swab as is the case for the other cases.
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