Just tested positive by chance after cold symptoms

[oep17]

Was given lateral flow kit on Thursday (work in NHS) but wasn’t going to start using it until after Xmas as I am on leave until January. When all plans got cancelled this afternoon thought I may as well do one as if by some chance it’s positive then we are isolating now anyway (tier 4 area). I’ve had nothing more than what in any other year I would say is a cold since Monday (14th) with blocked nose and sinusitis. Also had terrible backache with aching legs on the Monday which I thought was caused by carrying too much heavy shopping.

Lo and behold my lateral flow test was a beaming positive. I’ve had no fever, no cough and no loss of taste or smell. I would not have otherwise been eligible for the general NHS test as don’t have any of those symptoms so if I hadn’t taken the lateral flow I would never have known.

When will my contacts be traced from and the 10 day isolation started? Today or when I first got the cold symptoms?

I am very stressed and also 15 weeks pregnant. If I’m 6 days into symptoms and no one I have had contact with is showing any symptoms how likely is it that I have passed it on? We only came out of a 2 week isolation as my DS had a positive contact at nursery 9 days ago. He’s not been back since. Could it be delayed from that?

I can’t sleep as I found out late this evening and it’s sending me mad with worry. We have a confirmatory PCR NHS test booked at 7.30am but have to drive an hour to get it as that’s all the availability they had.

Poor you The main thing is, that it's not at all your fault. You couldn't have known.
Unfortunately I don't know much about the details of the science myself. I've got all sorts of worries too at the moment, about the new strain, and how contagious it is. So I really feel for you.
Go easy on yourself. All you can do now is your best with the new knowledge you have.
Take care, and I hope you feel better, and make a full recovery soon

Thank you for your reply @WanderingFruitWonderer it’s all such a worry isn’t it. It feels like a bad dream when you can’t wait to wake up and tell someone about the awful dream you just had and breathe relief it wasn’t real.

We have very limited food supplies and absolutely no food for Xmas in the house so will need to get someone to shop for us but most of the people we would ask (close family) we have seen in one form or another in the last week so are likely to be isolating themselves.

I’m just so worried I may have passed it on. My DS is looked after by my parents as part of a childcare bubble and they had him on Friday, plus people I work with, we wear masks and socially distance where possible but not sure with this new strain if masks are working I don’t know where I can have got it from :(

What an awful year.

Don't you have to get a PCR Test now if you're in the NHS to confirm. I was under the impression that you do as the lateral flows aren't as accurate and a lot of them give false positives - so you might find you don't have it (fingers crossed). It does sound like you have symptoms of it since Monday though.

Try not to worry. I had a positive test a couple of months ago. Similar to you I had just what I would describe as a head cold for about a week, I didn’t lose my smell until probably around day 7/8 - no temp, cough or other covid symptoms and smell went as I was feeling better! I took a test on the Monday which came back positive. They advised to count 10 days from day covid symptoms started and took details for the 48 hours prior to that! I hope you start to feel well soon, personally I contacted everyone I’d been in contact with myself but don’t worry about passing it on you didn’t know

@BBCONEANDTWO yes we have an NHS PCR one booked at 7.30am today. Have to drive an hour to get it so will be leaving in a few hours. I’m not hopeful for it returning a negative but there’s always a tiny chance. Think the lateral flows are bad for false negatives but pretty accurate for positives x

@Itsallchange thank you so much for sharing. Makes me feel better. All I can do is hope and pray I’m the only one that gets it and this head cold is as bad as it gets. They really need to sort out the eligibility criteria for an NHS test, I’ve been wandering about infectious not realising because I didn’t have the 3 main symptoms and if they go by my symptoms being last Monday I only have to isolate for 4 days now! Totally missed the window to prevent the spread 🙁

I think if you don’t have covid symptoms you will go from the date of your test. Which just seems madness to me! This makes me wonder if this is
How it’s spreading so easily as people don’t realise they have it as just normal cold symptoms. Sending you lots of love and hope you feel better soon

My friends son has just tested positive with nothing but a runny nose and was only tested because 23 out of 30 of his infant school class tested positive with only mild cold symptoms. If the school hadn’t said to test without normal symptoms they would never have known.
I have LF tests (also NHS) and was told that false positives are more common than false negatives, hence why you have to confirm with a PCR.
Either way, fingers crossed it stays mild for you. Take care.

Think the lateral flows are bad for false negatives but pretty accurate for positives

I thought the false positive rate was quite high, isn't that why when school testing starts all positives will be followed up with a regular test?

I work for the nhs too and got given the lateral flow kits. On mine there was a huge leaflet inside to say what other viruses might trigger the test to be positive. You aren’t meant to use the lateral flow if you have symptoms as I guess other viruses (cold virus) could trigger it to be positive. That’s why they confirm with the PCR

How it’s spreading so easily as people don’t realise they have it as just normal cold symptoms.

I think the cold symptoms are still just a cold. Likely coincidence to be positive and asymptomatic for Coronavirus at the same time. Winter colds are rife and don't just disappear because of coronavirus.

Hope you continue to feel ok op

This is one of the issues with the government approach to school/nursery isolations of contacts - child goes home, but all other family members continue. We're not building enough of a firewall around cases.

I think they need to expand the "main symptoms". Most people I know didn't get a cough and the loss of smell came later. Most said they were tired and achy and/or suffering bad sinus pain.

I guess they can't test every with a sniffle in winter but I think that is why it is spreading.

@Ohdoleavemealone

I think they need to expand the "main symptoms". Most people I know didn't get a cough and the loss of smell came later. Most said they were tired and achy and/or suffering bad sinus pain.

I guess they can't test every with a sniffle in winter but I think that is why it is spreading.

Tests are rationed by not including sore throat, fatigue as other countries do.

Test and Trace has been a very expensive bung to private companies

I’m in two minds about the cold symptoms . I do wonder if it’s coincidence, and most people with colds will be testing negative.

I’m doing a test tomorrow as Zoe app has asked me to and have a bad cold with insane sinus pain so will see! But 99pc sure it will be negative . I guess it helps the scientists either way to get an idea of the pattern.

OP don’t worry, this is whats happening, most people are being sensible and would be horrified to pass it on. But it’s very infectious and can be silent.

Just set off for the test site which is a 2 hour round trip, my DS has woken with diarrhoea which is a common covid symptom in children I think. Had to put him in a nappy for the journey despite him being fully toilet trained. Honestly just when you think it can’t get any worse 🤦🏼‍♀️ I don’t think I will subject him to a test if he really doesn’t want one, if me and my partner are positive we will just assume he is as well

You poor things. If you are positive Morriston are doing a Christmas box of food delivered for anyone positive it has basics for an Xmas meal in it. Call your.local store.

How does a lateral flow test work?

@oep17

@mumdiva99 It’s similar to a pregnancy/drug test, you get given a swab and a small bottle of solution and a little plastic vial/container. You take the swab from each side of your nose, then swirl it in the solution in the little plastic container and then add three drops to the test strip on a plastic test kit and it slowly (or not in my case it was practically instant) goes positive or negative the same as it does on a pregnancy test. Meant to wait for 30 minutes but like I said I don’t think it was even a minute before there was two lines on mine.

From everything I’ve read they don’t detect a large proportion of positive cases so aren’t the gold standard hence the need to confirm with the proper PCR which is done in a lab

@Mumdiva99 and thanks for the info about Morrison’s will look into it, atm my head is all over the place I can’t think straight thinking my parents are going to end up in hospital or being ventilated, or worse. They aren’t especially at risk they are mid 50s one with thyroid issues and the other has a much higher BMI than they should but all I’ve heard for the last 9 months is what an unpredictable and dangerous virus it is it’s hard to imagine people do actually get away with mild illness

Probably isolate from today seeing you haven't had any covid symptoms. The cold symptoms could be just that. It can't be helped if you've had it longer and been mixing, you probably didn't have it 6 days ago though as apparently a test is unlikely to show positive after that period - which is why you have to test within 5 days. At least you know now, there must be so many in your position it's no wonder it's spreading so fast again when the government are sticking to those 3 symptoms for a test which most don't even have. Don't blame yourself.

I'd also worry about the number of false negatives from the standard test. I'm almost certain dd and I had covid 2 weeks ago. DD's test was negative but I had to do it and I do not feel confident I did it correctly. My results never came back.

Good luck. 2 family members have just tested positive with cold symptoms. They luckily ignored the government guidelines & decided to test as they’d been in contact with a positive case through work. I feel a bit bad as I told them not to test as they didn’t have classic covid symptoms. I now have egg on my face

Good luck...interesting to know the result as I know people who have been tested several times with LF list and they have swung positive to negative several times which undermines confidence in them

Test all done and handed over. Test centre was quite busy and the biohazard box was full of tests when we handed ours over at only 8am. I’m expecting a quite a long time for getting results back. Driving back now to hunker down for the next 10 days and have Xmas at home if we can get some food from somewhere! Thank you for all your supportive messages x