Unvaccinated Covid contacts must self-isolate – Dr Brink

Insurance worker Jayne Packham said she was told by Public Health that her partner Neil Gosselin, who is unvaccinated, could go out while testing negative on daily LFTs, despite being a contact. They were later told they had been putting lives at risk.

Both had chosen to remain unvaccinated, as Ms Packham said she went out of her way to live a healthy lifestyle.

‘There was much confusion about different departments giving different messages – we were only following the rules presented to us,’ she said.

‘Listening to advice from the States, I got a positive result and specifically asked on Neil’s behalf what he should do. Someone from the results team said, yes, he was legally allowed to go out.’

A couple of days later, Mr Gosselin, who works as a painter and decorator, tested positive and was told he should not have been going out.

But the couple said they were disappointed by the reaction from Public Health. They said that a phone call received was ‘abusive’ and ‘prejudiced’.

‘It was really distressing,’ Ms Packham said. ‘We were just following their rules. It was very clearly because we were unvaccinated.’

Following an email from Ms Packham, an apology was received from the woman’s colleague.

Dr Brink said she could not comment on individual cases, but Public Health staff might occasionally give the wrong advice for the specific circumstances of the member of the community.

‘We are all human and capable of making mistakes,’ she said. ‘When we make mistakes, we always seek to apologise.’

She said Public Health respected everyone’s right to make an evidence-based decision on vaccination, but there was evidence full-course vaccination reduced symptomatic infection after exposure by 50 to 60%.

‘Non-vaccinated individuals are not conferred this protection and therefore pose a higher risk of becoming a secondary case after exposure to someone infected.’

Dr Brink reiterated that unvaccinated contacts of positive Covid-19 cases must stay at home.

‘Having reviewed the evidence available, we expect unvaccinated individuals to have higher risk of symptomatic infection and subsequent onward transmission than vaccinated individuals,’ she said.

‘Therefore we ask unvaccinated contacts of a case to stay at home to minimise the risk of onward transmission within the community.’

Adult unvaccinated contacts of a case will be issued with a ten day stay at home order. Young people who are aged between 18 and reception age are not required to isolate if they are a contact, but must do lateral flow tests for 10 days. Children younger than reception will have PCR tests.