The lockdown restrictions have started to be eased and the government has introduced a new NHS Test and Trace system.
Launched on Wednesday 27 May, the new system means that someone who tests positive for coronavirus will be asked to identify who they have been in contact with.
Get tested
It is very important that if you have symptoms indicating you may have COVID-19 that you book a test and self-isolate. The symptoms include:
• High temperature
• New and continuous cough
• Loss of taste and/or smell.
If the test is positive then there will be a direct link into the contact tracing system.
Those who have been identified as having contact with someone with a positive test, will be contacted by a ‘tracer’ and asked to self-isolate for 14 days, whether or not they have symptoms.
The NHS Test and Trace system is not the government’s widely reported app system which is still in development.
Be aware of fraud
If you are contacted and advised that you have been in contact with someone with coronavirus symptoms, you will not be asked for any bank account details or payments. Please be aware of possible fraudsters calling and claiming to be a ‘tracer’.
Councillor Binda Rai, cabinet member for adults and public health said: “Although lockdown restrictions are easing it is very important that we all continue to follow social distancing rules, keeping a gap of two metres from anyone not in our own household. To help with this the council is putting into place markers, signs and stencils around the borough, reminding us of this.
“It is also vitally important to maintain good hand hygiene, so regularly washing our hands thoroughly with soap and water for 20 seconds. And if you’re not quite sure how long that is, it is about as long as it takes to sing Happy Birthday.”
Change of the rules
In a change to national rules, groups of up to six people can now meet in private gardens – but only if people from different households continue to stick to social distancing rules by staying two metres apart.
Those who have shielded for the past 12 weeks can now go outside and meet with one other person from another household.
