COVID-19: management of staff and exposed patients and residents in health and social care settings
Guidance on the management of staff, patients and residents who have been exposed to COVID-19.
Documents
Details
This guidance is for staff and managers in health and social care settings and includes:
- guidance for health and social care staff if they develop coronavirus (COVID-19) symptoms, receive a positive test result or are identified as a contact of a COVID-19 case
- guidance on isolation requirements for patients and residents in health and social care settings after contact with COVID-19 cases
- guidance on repeat testing for COVID-19 for staff, patients and residents in health and social care settings
Please note that this guidance is of a general nature and that an employer should consider the specific conditions of each individual place of work and comply with all applicable legislation, including the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.
There may be further information specific to each country in the UK, as this guidance was written by the UK Health Security Agency primarily for an English health professional audience. To see if country-specific information is available, please refer to Health Protection Scotland, Public Health Wales, or Public Health Agency in Northern Ireland.
Updates to this page
Published 4 April 2020Last updated 1 April 2022 + show all updates
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Added notice regarding upcoming withdrawal of guidance.
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Updated to reflect changes to self-isolation regulations.
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Updated information on self-isolation for residents of care homes who are contacts; further information now available in Admission to care homes guidance. Updated information for staff returning from travel abroad.
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Updated to reflect change in isolation period in hospitals from 14 to 10 days for cases and contacts of cases of COVID-19 and includes new changes to self-isolation periods for staff in health and care settings.
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Updated to remove requirement for people testing positive on an LFD test to have a confirmatory PCR test.
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Clarifying guidance on returning to work after a continued positive LFD test.
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Temporarily removed 'Symptomatic worker flow chart for return to work following a SARS-CoV-2 test'.
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Updated to reflect changes to the self-isolation advice for people who have received a positive COVID-19 test result.
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Updated to reflect changes to self-isolation periods for staff in health and care settings.
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Self-isolation requirements removed for contacts of a case infected with the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2.
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Clarified wording around isolation requirement and to reflect LFD testing requirement after returning from another country – for health and social care staff, as laid out in CAS alert.
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Updated guidance for people identified as a suspected or confirmed case of the Omicron variant of COVID-19. Includes updated advice on PCR testing.
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Added information on referring to organisational guidance if and where this applies.
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Updated in line with changes to self-isolation for contacts from 16 August.
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Updated section 2.5 clarifying the risk-assessment process and an additional mitigation for staff to avoid working with clinically extremely vulnerable individuals.
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Updated information for fully vaccinated staff who have been identified as contacts attending work in exceptional circumstances.
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Added information about fully vaccinated staff who have been identified as contacts attending work in exceptional circumstances.
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Added new section on lateral flow device (LFD) testing in asymptomatic staff.
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Added information on isolation periods and re-testing exemptions.
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Added information on isolation periods and re-testing exemptions.
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Updated self-isolation period.
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Updated self-isolation period to 10 days.
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Updated the exemption of PCR retesting period from 6 weeks to 90 days.
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Updates made to section 4 to include guidance on when health and social care staff can be exempt from being considered a contact for the purposes of Test and Trace.
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Updated flowcharts to reflect the extension of the self-isolation period from 7 to 10 days.
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Updated to reflect the extension of the self-isolation period from 7 days to 10 days for staff who have COVID-19 symptoms or a positive test result from the community; 14 days isolation period for staff and patients who are admitted to hospital (section 2); inclusion of re-testing guidance in staff (section 3).
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Updated footnote 1 of flow chart documents.
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Updated flowcharts with additional guidance on clinical symptoms.
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Removed action for individuals with negative test result from ‘Symptomatic worker flowchart’.
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Updated flowcharts with information on self isolation for cases identified as contacts via the test and trace system.
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Added new section on NHS test and trace.
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Updates made to introduction and sections 4.3, addition of section 4.4 and section 5.
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Updated in light of the test and trace guidance and added guidance for risk assessment of staff in the event of PPE breaches.
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Added sentence in section 2, clarifying that second episodes of symptoms require isolation and repeat testing.
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Clarification of managing household members of exposed health or social care workers.
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Updated text and added section on residents in care settings.
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Updated text and added 2 new flowcharts.
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Updated title and content to provide clarification that the guidance applies to any healthcare setting, not just hospitals.
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Clarification of action in the event of a household member with a negative test.
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Updated return to work criteria, patient exposures, and added a flow chart.
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First published.