March 6, 2020

expert comments about the suggestion that people who are self-isolating should try to self-isolate from their family members too

Suggestions have been made that people who are self-isolating should try to self-isolate from family members and people they live with.

Prof Tom Solomon, Director, NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Emerging and Zoonotic Infections, University of Liverpool, said:

“Although there is clearly an increased risk for household contact of patients in isolation at home, it is not inevitable that they will become infected.  As far as possible the person infected with the coronavirus should keep themselves away from other household members.  They should be extremely careful about coughing and sneezing into tissues which they then dispose of, and everyone in the household should be scrupulous about hand washing.”

Prof Jonathan Ball, Professor of Molecular Virology, University of Nottingham, said:

“Those in self-isolation should try to minimise interactions with household members during the isolation period and follow the self-isolation advice on the government website.  This advice is designed to protect those other people most at risk, as well as the wider public.  There is no need to isolate an entire family because an uninfected person poses no risk.  If someone else within the family then develops symptoms they too should immediately isolate.”

All our previous output on this subject can be seen at this weblink:

http://www.sciencemediacentre.org/tag/covid-19

The SMC also produced a Factsheet on COVID-19 which is available here:

https://www.sciencemediacentre.org/smc-novel-coronavirus-factsheet/

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