Ping

I’ve just had one of those, “Well, I wasn’t expecting that!” moments. Having just returned from a holiday in Croatia and tested negative in every required Covid test, and several more at home, we’ve just been ‘pinged’ by SERCO (NHS) track and trace. I’ve been “identified as a contact for someone who has recently been tested for Covid-19” and I must now stay at home for the next 10 days. But how can this be? We have seen a grand total of two people since we returned to the UK, neither of whom have had positive tests, so there is only one possible conclusion: someone on our return flight from Split tested positive and everyone on it must have had the same messages.

I will of course note the contents of the stay at home instruction. I have no symptoms and I have had three negative lateral flow tests in three days. We took our privately paid for two day PCR test yesterdays and posted them this morning. If these come back positive and it turns out we have Covid – and my partner is most unlikely to given she is double-jabbed and had the virus in June – we will of course do the right thing.

I did not think for one moment anything would happen as a result of the return flight. An aircraft is as safe a place as it’s possible to be when it comes to viruses, with the air being refreshed constantly. Everyone was wearing a mask so the odds are the positive test applied to someone who caught the virus in Croatia. The only other possibility is that we were on the same transfer bus from Split harbour to Split airport as a Covid person.

Certainly, this is a useful warning, if that’s the right word to anyone else who’s going on holiday abroad. Just when you thought it was safe to resume real life when you get home from holiday, watch out for them emails.