Twelve weeks for people with underlying health conditions

1Loubylou said:

People with underlying health conditions were originally told to stay at home for twelve weeks due to Coronavirus. This information seems to have disappeared and I can only find to stay at home for “ a number of weeks”. Can anyone clarify this as my boss is questioning me not going into work.

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There has been lots of talk about those with underlying conditions and plenty of general advice about self isolating for 3 months etc but as far as I know there has been NO requirement whatsoever and nothing formal, I'm not surprised your Boss is questioning why you haven't been at work. May I ask what made you think it was ok to just not go to work? As from next Monday it looks like those who fall into this category might well get a letter explaining it but up to now there has been nothing but conjecture, speculation and confusion. Some employers were quick off the ball and have already taken action to protect their employees (without waiting for the official decision) but mine haven't. x

1Loubylou said:

The government said to self isolate from this Sunday 22nd March for twelve weeks but this information has gone

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Yes they did. I didn't see the point in waiting till 22nd. It's not like the virus is reading the rules.

Edit: On Weds my son sent me a copy of the advice which was broadcast on Monday on BBC news but I can't manage to post it here

Actually, the government said that people with the listed medical conditions were advised to practice social distancing, and then laid out a series of measures describing what this involved - which included avoiding rush hour traffic when going to and from work, and to work from home if at all possible. So work was definitely still permitted and was even being encouraged.

The self- isolation is for people showing symptoms of COVID-19, and (now) their household members.

I copied and pasted the actual wording used by the www.gov.uk website yesterday into a thread. You can find it here:
https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/self-isolation.172911/#post-2235468

if the info has now been removed from the www.gov.uk website, has been superseded by newer information.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-stay-at-home-guidance

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/coronavirus-covid-19-list-of-guidance

@1Loubylou .
A 76 yr old was sent home from our workplace this Tuesday. I questioned whether this was compulsory or optional.
I was told it was advisory.
Today I received a call from work telling me I had to stay off work for 12 weeks, a decision made by a HR dept that has never actually met me. Their decision was based on my employment record.
I challenged the decision and asked my manager if HR could force me to stay away from work. After asking the response was that , no , they couldn’t force me to stay away and providing I was happy and under no stress being at work then they were happy for me to be there.
Must add that if I had taken the 12 weeks off it would have been on full pay so my decision to stay at work wasn’t a financial one.
The decision is yours.

I’m a civil servant working in the same building as a private company which sent a number of employees home last week whom their OH dept had identified as being at risk - over 50% of the staff have now been told to work from home. I work with a 74 year old who my employers have suggested works from home but he is refusing to - there is no reason why he shouldn’t because we all have laptops. I am lucky in that I can work nearly as effectively at home as in the office and, because my husband has underlying health conditions, that’s what I have been advised to, and will be, doing.

My brother in law is T1 he is now working from home this is relatively easy as he is a principal Educational psychologist and the boss he did not need permission his son who is now in his thirties has Cystic Fibrosis brother in law had to rescue him from London a few days ago and is I believe now staying with his mum and dad so so self isolation will be doubly important for them I suppose if their son has to isolate for 12 weeks so will his dad.