Covid testing - Are there many false negatives?

[Janevaljane]

dd shares a house with her bf and four others. They were all tested yesterday and got results today (Wales!). All positive, apart from dd! They are all isolating including her. How on earth is she negative!

@Janevaljane

I'm sure they wouldn't have done it if she had broken the rules in any way. Take it up with NHS Wales if you have an issue with it.

You’ve got it back to front. They have to declare they have a symptom before they book the test.

@JeanClaudeVanDammit

It’s my understanding that if the swab doesn’t pick up enough of whatever it needs to pick up the result comes back as inconclusive rather than negative. Hopefully it’s a true negative and she doesn’t have it. I think a lot of people don’t actually infect anyone else - it’s just that a few people infect loads so the “r” average is a bit misleading.

I was wondering that, hoped that would be the case, thanks. I had a nightmare with dd and worried it would all be for nothing.

I think people mean she is wasting tests by getting one next week for no reason. She is isolating anyway so what's the point? Why is she desperate to be positive?

She's not desperate to be positive. She's supposed to be moving into a new house with someone who has a heart condition so is clinically vulnerable. She obviously doesn't want to move in if shes got covid. She'll wait 10 days and then see if she has any symptoms.

Again, people should not have a test unless they have one or more of the three symptoms specified.

I presume you keep repeating this for the benefit of anyone else reading this thread? As it's nothing to do with the OP and whether you like it or not, she's had a test.

Yes was just about to say the same, rightly or wrongly it's done. Without symptoms, I suspect a negative test is almost certainly correct. But as I'm sure you know imshe could have contracted it half an hour after taking the test. Her plan sounds very sensible.

Especially as shes now living and isolating in a house with 5 people who all tested positive if she manages to stay unaffected I'll be amazed

I don't know why people keep saying this. Unless one of the cases is a superspreader transmission in households isn't that great (an early study said 28% between spouses, less between other household members). Google it. It seems to defy logic but there are numerous scientific papers. Anecdotally I know of cases where one or two household members had it & not the others, including spouses.

Yes 20-30% of pcr are false negatives

@Poetf unless of course you’re a kid/adolescent as PHE symptoms and listed Covid symptoms don’t apply.

It’s headache/fatigue for kids and I know friends who have found positive kids by only testing without the listed symptoms!

Symptoms need updating for kids but that doesn’t suit political agenda.

I’ll be testing mine with Zoe app symptoms not PHE ones as they’re not correct.

DS shares a large flat at university and 8 out of 9 have tested positive and the 9th has had 3 tests at the university drop in testing station and has tested negative each time. The irony is that the positive testers are all out of isolation tonight but the negative one still has to isolate until Monday. We suspect they have already had it but without an antibody year they will never know.

My mum got a false negative. She was horrendously ill.

Had the antibodies test a couple of months later which was positive.

My friend in ITU says the test has about a 70% success rate and is less effective if not administered within a couple of days of symptoms as by then the virus has migrated from the nose/throat.

@Janevaljane

She's not desperate to be positive. She's supposed to be moving into a new house with someone who has a heart condition so is clinically vulnerable. She obviously doesn't want to move in if shes got covid. She'll wait 10 days and then see if she has any symptoms.

Regardless of her negative test, she should be isolating for 14 days if someone in her household tests positive. If someone else develops symptoms the 14 days is reset from that date.

Retesting won't tell her whether she's been in contact with someone who has Covid - she knows she has. Nor will it tell her whether or not she will develop symptoms - she will find out during the isolation period.

My sister is an A&E nurse. There have been times that it has taken 7 tests for a patient to test positive when they are textbook coronavirus. The figure she gave me from her managers is they are about 60% accurate.

So yes. False negatives can definitely happen.

Thanks, she is going to isolate for 14 days. Fingers crossed noone else develops symptoms. If she doesn't develop symptoms she's not planning to have another test.

Hope the time goes quickly for her

Thanks, she's stuck with 6 boys, lol.