Time taken to get test results

[DragonLegs]

I’m really annoyed it takes so long! Surely the government should have this sorted by now. The whole family is on day 3 off school and work. My sons cough was borderline in my opinion. I’m wishing I hadn’t bothered getting him tested so we weren’t in this position! We’ve been tested before and had results in under 12 hrs, so it is possible.

I can’t be the only one thinking like this, surely the delay in getting results is going to put some people off being tested at all.

124 hours for us... rang 119 and they have 'launched an investigation'.

Now on 6 days. An 'investigation' was launched on Sunday. This seems to be someone sending an email and hoping something comes back. I phoned 119 again today and they have booked another test for tonight for him. DS is seriously unimpressed and I don't blame him.

Let's hope it's negative or his desk mates could have been merrily spreading it around the school without knowing!

I’m on day 8 now and got re tested but had to lie on the form to get a test- they won’t do them If your symptoms started more than 5 days ago. I’m doubtful they will be valid tbh but have had dd with a positive test last Monday and my mum with one taken Friday past so I figure I should really check... due to go back to patient- facing work next Wednesday 28th... it’s really not good enough.

I've written to MP, the delay will deter people getting tested.

Mine eventually came through (negative) after 103 hours. 5 days not able to do anything for no reason.

Just to add a little hope to future people, perhaps, my son's test has come back 26 hours after posting. It was a home test and we live in Essex, not sure if location makes any difference! I hope everyone else gets theirs back soon. We have only been isolating for 4 days, and that was bad enough, so I genuinely feel for you all.

@Isadora2007 I asked about this because it was 119 that suggested we retest 7 days after symptom onset. You can now be tested 8 days after symptoms start.

The test they use shows up small amounts of virus and even dead virus so it should still be valid. Apparently, it was a problem at the beginning of the pandemic as they thought people might still be infectious for ages but they now know that most people are fine after 10 days so long as their symptoms have resolved, even if they still test positive.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-54000629

We did a drive through test yesterday late afternoon and result was back 7am this morning. I was shocked! We were clearly incredibly lucky. We're in Hertfordshire.

@BatSegundo in Scotland where I am they’re still saying 5 days from symptoms. So I just lied. We will see. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Feel like I'm boasting but as a positive note DH and DD had symptoms yesterday morning, successfully booked a test for as soon as was realistic to get them there and results arrived (negative) within 8 hours.

This was Glasgow Airport drive through and to be fair DH is a low tier key worker.

Some of the system seems to be working, hopefully the UK government for England can make it work.

I'm nearly at 60 hours and far too impatient to be dealing with this!

29 hours.
Not all tests are slow. I think most do arrive in time.
But slow ones must be soooo annoying and I really feel for everyone who has to wait

26 hours - from a drive thru testing station in Essex this week. (result was positive , not sure this that makes a difference to the speed of the result or not.)

30 hrs. Negative result but I thought it would be as had covid earlier in the year. Still got to isolate until tues at had a close contact test positive.

I thought I'd come on and give people some hope, because I was scouring this thread looking for some of my own earlier. I tested in a drive through 11am Sunday and got my negative results 5pm Tuesday, so only 2 days of work & school missed. A colleague of OH however was still waiting after 5 days. I'm a key worker so I dont know if that made a difference to how quickly I got results.

@Isadora2007 ah, I didn't realise it was different in Scotland. I thought test and trace was the one thing that was consistent everywhere!

5 days is certainly better from a contact tracing point of view, which is why I imagine Scotland have stuck with it (your nation seems to be doing things a whole deal better than ours in every respect) but it should still be ok a little longer than that in terms of a valid result.

Still nothing for us. It's been 6 days now so nearly a week since the test. DS can come out of isolation today based on when the bug began. I suppose we will never get the result but this will really influence whether I ever test again. I'm more inclined to just keep him off nursery and away from other people until the symptoms go away rather than go through it again. Same for myself I would rather just stay at home and wait to feel better instead of going through the testing process.

I feel exactly the same. This will result in so many people not bothering to get tested. Kids are missing much needed school, I'm seriously pissing off work (can't work from home) for what is almost certainly a negative result. I really wish I hadn't 'done the right thing' and I'm a pretty law abiding citizen with a Dh working so some £ coming in.

3 tests done yesterday in west London, 2 came back just now this morning (in 22 hours). I’m very impressed to be honest, just waiting on the 3rd.

Anyone get a test back after 6 days waiting? We are on day 6. It was escalated yesterday. LO will not have another test done. I’m absolutely fuming.

Day 6 for us too and nothing.

Where are you based kittlesticks? We are in the South West. Wondering if been given low priority due to low number of cases and fact we are not key workers or if just bad luck?!

Interesting - I'm in Somerset and got tested at airport - 72 hours now.

South West here too and we're now on day 10. Really don't think it's likely we'll get them back now, but glad to see others are getting them back within the 24/48 hours.

Yes we are Somerset too - got tested at Taunton but assume they’ve all gone to the same lab!