There have now been more than a million Covid-19 cases in the UK since the start of the pandemic โ and that means millions more have lived with or are living with people who have the infection.
But while the steps we should take to try and avoid catching coronavirus in the community are well known, what do you do when you know itโs definitely in your home, because a family member has tested positive? We felt unsure, so spoke with three experts to find out.
Paul Hunter, a professor in medicine at the University of East Anglia who specialises in infectious diseases and was on the World Health Organisation (WHO) Covid-19 Infection Prevention Advisory Expert Group, says: โIn-house transmission of Covid is real and is quite a high risk.โ
He continues: โNothing is going to be 100% effective โ even if youโre unbelievably obsessive-compulsive about all the precautions, you wouldnโt reduce your risk to zero, in part because thereโll have been a day or so when the patient was infectious and nobody knew and was carrying on normally.โ
Susan Michie, professor of health psychology and director of the Centre for Behaviour Change at University College London is on the governmentโs behavioural science advisory group on pandemic influenza to SAGE (the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies), which gives advice to support government decision-makers during emergencies.
โPeople need to get how coronavirus is spread into their heads first,โ Michie says, explaining that itโs spread either by picking up the infection from contaminated surfaces, or through the air either in droplets, or aerosol transmission.
โAerosols are tiny droplets so small that they donโt fall to the ground in the trajectory that droplets do,โ she says. โThey hang in the air for many, many hours, and I think this is explaining a lot of the infections weโve had indoors. Aerosol transmission is a big one.โ
And Dr Naomi Forrester-Soto, a virologist at Keele University, adds: โItโs possible to steer clear of coronavirus if you can isolate. Itโs very difficult to prevent people in the same house getting it โ you can do your best, but we just donโt live in big enough houses to isolate properly. Anything you do is going to minimise your risk, but itโs not going to eliminate it.โ
Here, our experts answer key questions about keeping as safe as possible when you live with someone who has Covid-19.
Do I need to disinfect everything?
โIf youโre sharing a house with someone with the infection, obviously you have to keep all surfaces and your hands disinfected,โ says Michie. โYou need lots of hot soapy water and lots of sanitisers everywhere. Put things like cutlery and crockery straight into a dishwasher or hot soapy water, and wash your hands if youโve carried them.โ
How far away should I stay from the infected person?
Other people living in the house should keep more than two metres apart from the infected person, and Michie says: โIโd suggest three or four metres apart. And if the patientโs got a phone, you can contact them that way. But they should talk quietly โ because the louder you talk or shout, youโll transmit a lot more aerosol than if you talk quietly. So the best thing is for them not to talk, or minimise talking โ do it by text, or phone in another room.โ
Do we need to stay in separate rooms?
โTry not to be in the same room as the infected person at all, because thatโs likely to have aerosols in it,โ says Michie. โSo keep the patient as isolated as possible. Itโs very difficult isolating like that, because we need people, especially when weโre ill and want to be looked after. So make sure theyโve got as much as possible to entertain themselves, depending on how ill they are โ some people might be infected but not that ill.โ
Should we wear masks in the house?
Forrester-Soto says adults should wear masks, but itโs not so necessary for children, particularly young ones. โIf youโre in different rooms you can take masks off,โ she points out.
And Hunter adds: โThereโs some evidence that if both you and the patient wear face coverings it can reduce your risk somewhat. Face coverings are valuable, but theyโre not a guarantee by a long way. When interacting with other family members they should wear a proper medical mask, not just a cloth face covering.โ
Should the windows be kept open?
All three experts stress that good ventilation is key. โIf you do go into the same room, make sure itโs well-ventilated, so the windows have been open for a while, doors open etc so youโve got a lot of air coming in,โ stresses Michie.
Do we need to use separate bathrooms?
Hunter says: โIf you have an en-suite bathroom, then ideally the infected person would use one for at least 10 days and the rest of the family would use the other bathroom.โ
The experts all stress that the infected person should use separate towels.
Do I need to sleep in a separate bed from my partner if they have Covid?
Hunter says sleeping in separate rooms is better, but obviously not always possible.โGenerally speaking, most transmission occurs by droplet spread, and if youโre in bed together and the infected person coughs itโs going to go all over both sides of the bed, so it is a risk. If you donโt have two bedrooms, you can only do what is feasible.โ
And Forrester-Soto adds: โIf you can, sleep in separate beds, because you canโt control how close you are to someone in bed, so sleeping separately is a really good idea, but it may not be possible.โ
How often should bedding and clothes be washed?
โIt depends on whether youโre sleeping in separate beds or not,โ say Forrester-Soto. โIf youโre sharing a bed, you ought to be washing bedding more frequently, maybe every day, but realistically I donโt know if thatโs possible.โ
As for clothes, Hunter says: โItโs fine to just wash the patientโs clothes with everything else, although you might as well do a separate wash.โ
Does the rest of the family need to get tested?
โIdeally you should get tested four to five days after the onset of someone elseโs symptoms, but itโs not possible at the moment given the limitations of testing because you have to have symptoms yourself,โ says Forrester-Soto. โYouโre unlikely to be infectious until four or five days after youโve been infected, but you should still isolate.โ
Is there a chance the rest of the household might not catch it?
โThere are doctors whoโve managed not to get it, even from the sickest patients, but they are wearing full PPE all the time,โ says Forrester-Soto. โI donโt know if itโs realistically possible for all the household to stay away from each other unless you have space in the house to isolate, and the capacity within your family to do so.
โYou canโt guarantee you havenโt had it โ what you can say is that youโve had no symptoms. A lot of people get asymptomatic infection, but theyโre still able to transmit, and itโs those people that are driving transmission. Itโs possible that some people may not get it, but I would think the majority of people in close contact with someone who has it who think they havenโt caught it will probably get it asymptomatically or get a milder infection that maybe doesnโt feel like coronavirusโ
And Michie adds: โI know of a couple of people whoโve lived with somebody whoโs had Covid-19 and ended up not getting it themselves. The extent to which people get it is partly due to exposure, and partly to do with vulnerability, which may be to do with your genetic make-up. But the people I know of took all the precautions they could, so there wasnโt any contact.โ
Can my genes help me avoid catching it?
Hunter says: โThere are some genetic factors in play. If youโre blood group O youโre generally much less likely to get severe Covid than if youโre blood group A. Blood group B is somewhere in between.โ