Self-isolation: everything you need to know

To self-isolate means to stay indoors and completely avoid contact with other people.

When self-isolating, you should:

• stay at home
• not allow visitors to your home
• ask family and friends or use delivery services to help with grocery shopping or getting medications, and leave the items outside your home
• not go to work, school, nursery, or public areas
• not use public transport like buses, trains or taxis

During a pandemic (worldwide spread of an infection or disease), this will help prevent you from spreading the infection to your family, friends, work colleagues and the community. This means that health services can focus on people who are already ill.

The amount of time you have to self-isolate for will depend on which of the following groups you are in.

If you have symptoms like a high temperature or a continuous cough, the current advice is to self-isolate for 10 days or until your fever resolves. If you still have symptoms, such as a cough afterwards, you no longer need to self-isolate.

If you’re becoming seriously ill with symptoms like breathing difficulties, use the NHS 111 online service for medical advice and support.

If you’re living with someone who starts showing symptoms, you should self-isolate for 14 days. Anyone else in the house should also self-isolate for 14 days. If the person with symptoms is well after 10 days, they can end their self-isolation.

If others do not show symptoms after 14 days, you can stop self-isolating. If you get symptoms during the 14 days, you should self-isolate for 10 days from when your symptoms started, even if it means you have to self-isolate for more than 14 days continuously.

You may receive a call or email from the government’s test and trace program, or receive an alert through their app, to let you know that you have recently been in contact with someone that is suspected of having coronavirus. If this is the case, you need to immediately self-isolate for 14 days from the last time you made contact with the person. During this period, the people you live with do not need to self isolate unless you start to show symptoms.

If you’re returning from abroad, the current government advice is to go home straight away and follow the UK’s social distancing measures.

If you have symptoms like a continuous cough or high temperature, you should follow the standard self-isolation guidelines.

If you need emergency food or medication, there are services you can use.

• Emergency food parcels are being sent to people who are ‘clinically extremely vulnerable’ and have been asked to ‘shield’. You can register as a clinically extremely vulnerable person on the gov.uk website.

If you urgently need medication you should contact whoever normally prescribes your medication, like your GP. If they cannot help, you might be able to get your medication from a pharmacist instead. See the NHS page on emergency medicine supplies for more information.

After self-isolating, you still need to go back to social distancing measures to help stop the spread of coronavirus. Social distancing rules are more relaxed than those for self-isolation. They include the following government instructions:

• Go out only for essential trips like buying food and medicine
• You can go out to exercise as often as you need to
• Avoid non-essential use of public transport
• Work from home if possible
• Avoid large gatherings in public places
• If you need to, contact your local GP online or by phone rather than visiting the surgery

The most important way to help others is to stay at home and maintain social distancing measures. If you would like to help, the current advice is to first make sure you:

• are not pregnant
• are under 70 years
• do not have symptoms of coronavirus like a high temperature or a continuous cough, or live with someone showing symptoms
• do not have any underlying health condition that could make you vulnerable to severe illness from coronavirus

If you are not in any of the risk groups, you can help your family, friends or neighbours who are self-isolating by:

• Getting them essential supplies like food or medicines. (Remember to leave all items outside for collection and always keep a distance of 2m (6ft) away
• Not visiting them to socialise

Staying in touch regularly through phone calls and digital communication

Learn about coronavirus testing and how to get tested

If you’re not in any of the risk groups, you can volunteer to help your local community during the coronavirus pandemic. You can help with essential tasks like:

• delivering food shopping
• getting prescription medicine
• helping local community support services like food banks and homeless services