A contact is a person who has been close to someone who has tested positive for COVID-19. You can be a contact any time from 2 days before the person who tested positive developed their symptoms (or, if they did not have any symptoms, from 2 days before the date their positive test was taken) and up to 10 days after – as this is when they can pass the infection on to others. A risk assessment may be undertaken to determine this, but a contact can be:
anyone who lives in the same household as another person who has COVID-19 symptoms or has tested positive for COVID-19
anyone who has had any of the following types of contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19:
face-to-face contact including being coughed on or having a face-to-face conversation within one metre
been within one metre for one minute or longer without face-to-face contact
been within 2 metres of someone for more than 15 minutes (either as a one-off contact, or added up together over one day)
A person may also be a close contact if they have travelled in the same vehicle or plane as a person who has tested positive for COVID-19. If you have been identified as a contact, you have been assessed as being at risk of developing COVID-19, even if you don’t have any symptoms. You will be notified by NHS Test and Trace via text message, email or phone or by the NHS COVID-19 app, and you should follow all the guidance in this document. An interaction through a Perspex (or equivalent) screen with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19 is not usually considered to be a contact, as long as there has been no other contact such as those in the list above.