It’s up to all of us to know what we must do to keep ourselves and others safe in the weeks and months ahead. The medical advice is clear: you must self-isolate if you have coronavirus symptoms or live in the same household as somebody who does.
The main symptoms of coronavirus are:
- High temperature – this means you feel hot to touch on your chest or back (you do not need to measure your temperature)
- New, continuous cough – this means coughing a lot for more than an hour, or 3 or more coughing episodes in 24 hours (if you usually have a cough, it may be worse than usual)
- Loss or change to your sense of smell or taste – this means you’ve noticed you cannot smell or taste anything, or things smell or taste different to normal
For more information, read further guidance on symptoms.
As soon as you experience coronavirus symptoms, you must:
- Isolate: medical advice is clear: you must self-isolate for at least 10 days. Anyone else in your household must self-isolate for 14 days from when you started having symptoms
- Test: get a free NHS test immediately to check if you have coronavirus or call 119
- Results: if your test is positive, you must complete the remainder of your 10-day self-isolation. Anyone in your household must also complete self-isolation for 14 days from when you started having symptoms. If your test is negative, other household members no longer need to self-isolate. If you feel well and no longer have symptoms similar to coronavirus, you can stop self-isolating (unless you have been contacted separately by NHS Test and Trace as a contact of someone who has tested positive).
You can find more information here about the NHS Test and Trace service, including what happens if you test positive for coronavirus (COVID-19) or have had close contact with someone who has tested positive.