Have you been abroad in the past 14 days?

Have you tested positive for Covid in the past 28 days? Has a close contact tested positive in the past 14 days? Have you been abroad in the past 10 days? In the past 48 hours, have you had any symptoms such as a continuous cough, high temperature or a change to your sense of smell or taste? That last one is a mouthful. My volunteer role at the vaccination centre today was on the ramp at the entrance. Asking these questions is important as a lot of very vulnerable people come to be vaccinated, and we have to keep them safe inside the centre. We are also vaccinating a lot of children who have not had their first dose yet so are more vulnerable to infection.

Today quite a lot of people answered "yes" to one of the questions. This usually leads to the shift supervisor being called over and more questions asked - which then sometimes leads to the clinical lead being called over to determine whether someone can be allowed inside. A close contact has tested positive but you are double vaccinated and here for your booster - it's possible we will let you in but we need to know which tests you have taken and when. You visited your parents in Italy for Christmas and took your two day PCR test after you got back and can show us the result on your phone? Come on in!

You took your PCR test but you are still waiting for the result? Sorry, but you are currently breaking the law which says you MUST quarantine until you receive a negative PCR result.

Sadly, we had to turn three people away today for this reason!

It sucks having to turn people away, but volunteers and staff at the centre have to turn Bluetooth off to avoid getting pinged - which suggests that despite our care some positive cases may have come into the centre. The whole point of getting vaccinated is to keep yourself and others safe, and that starts with keeping the vaccination centre safe.

It also means that as a clinically vulnerable person I have always felt safe to volunteer there!