If you are notified that someone has tested positive for Covid-19 who visited your setting during the infectious period*, contact theLondon Coronavirus Response Cell (LCRC) if you have not already heard from them:
Email: LCRC@phe.gov.uk or call 0300 303 0450
Please also let Tower Hamlets Council know by emailing: PHCov19@towerhamlets.gov.uk.
LCRC will help you to undertake a risk assessment and tell you what to do next.
As a minimum, once a case is reported you should undertake a deep clean.
*People are infectious 48 hours before, and 10 days after, the onset of symptoms (or the date of their test if they do not have symptoms).
Note
A single case at a setting is classified as a situation, which puts LCRC on alert for any future cases that might be linked to the same place.
When there are two or more linked cases within a setting, this is classified as an outbreak.
If anyone who has been to your workplace reports a positive test, the risk assessment that LCRC will undertake will help them identify any potential close contacts who have also been there. Close contacts will then be contacted to request that they self-isolate and take a test if they develop symptoms.
If any close contact returns a positive test, this would then be classified as an outbreak and trigger additional action.
- Nominate a key member of staff to represent your organisation when dealing with a situation or outbreak. They will be the main contact person for the LCRC and/or Tower Hamlets Council.
If necessary, an outbreak incident management team may be convened, with one of your senior staff invited to attend to help enable joint decision making.
- Have your visitor log ready: LCRC will want to use it for contact tracing. You will need to work with LCRC to identify who has been in close contact with the positive case.
A ‘close contact’ is a person who has been close to someone who has tested positive for Covid-19 while they are infectious.
Close contact includes
- Household contacts
- Sexual partners
- A person who has had face-to-face contact (within one metre), with someone who has tested positive for Covid-19, including: being coughed on, having a face-to-face conversation within one metre, having skin-to-skin physical contact, or contact within one metre for one minute or longer without face-to-face contact
- A person who has been within 2 metres of someone who has tested positive for COVID-19 for more than 15 minutes
- A person who has travelled in a small vehicle with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19 or in a large vehicle or plane near someone who has tested positive for COVID-19
Think about communication with your employees and the community, as advised by LCRC and/or Tower Hamlets Council.
- Check that all staff on the premises are symptom-free and have not been told by NHS Test and Trace/LCRC to self-isolate.
- If anyone in your team does have symptoms, or has been told to self-isolate, send them home and ask them to follow self-isolation advice/guidance for contacts. Consider what support you can offer them to help with self-isolation.
- For large outbreaks, LCRC and Tower Hamlets Council may discuss mass testing of your employees with you.