Clarity on the 15 minutes please

Why are the contact tracing apps being cited as recording if you're in contact with someone for 15 minutes? What's 15 minutes got to do with it?

Why the contribution is important

Extra confusion as the suggestion is now you have to be in contact with someone for 15 minutes before you could get/spread the infection, which presumably isn't correct based on what we've been told so far. So, again, clarity of messaging would be helpful.

by davidcoffield on May 09, 2020 at 09:28AM

Current Rating

Average rating: 4.0
Based on: 2 votes

Comments

  • Posted by Ro2 May 09, 2020 at 13:57

    Just speaking as myself and not representing any institution or government agency: It is pretty much arbitrary. 12 minutes is also mentioned quite often. Risk of infection depends more on what kind of contact it was than on the amount of time. For example in the open air, being half a metre away from an infected person who does not sneeze or cough and who is wearing a face mask, is probably very low risk even if it lasts longer than 15 minutes. On the other hand walking into a stuffy room with poor ventilation, where 5 metres away from you a Covid-infected person has been coughing constantly without a mask, is likely to be risky even if it is just for one minute. That is why I expressed concern in this forum about contact tracing apps on phones; because these can record only time and a very rough estimate of distance to another device. Unless backed up by human common sense to interpret the actual situation, such apps will condemn huge numbers of people into quarantine almost randomly for no good reason.

  • Posted by Andy1510 May 10, 2020 at 18:34

    Does this mean we can start speed dating again?
Log in or register to add comments and rate ideas

Idea topics