How could it be Covid??

[Tehmina23]

I work as an HCA in a hospital ward with elective surgical patients who have isolated prior to their operations, at work I have to wear a surgical mask all shift.
Out of work I live alone and just have 2 people in my support bubble.

I wear a mask in all shops and maintain good hand hygiene.

I've had the 2 Pfizer vaccines with no ill effects.

I had an Antibody blood test that showed I hadn't had Covid over the past year.
I do lateral flow tests as required by work twice a week.

Yesterday I woke up with a very sore throat & developed a temperature, so I phoned in sick for today's shift.

I've felt poorly & wiped out all day & had developed a cough so phoned the Clinical Leader at 230pm to say I won't be in tomorrow either.

The CL made me go for a Covid swab!! Even though the lateral flow test I did today was negative. She says they are not reliable so why are we doing them??
And as I've been vaccinated twice how could I be ill with Covid?

Anyway I will get my result by 1pm tomorrow... fingers crossed it's just a heavy cold & not Covid...

All the best and get well soon

Good luck with the result.

LF's pick up about 40% of +ve cases.

They're not designed to be used as confirmation that someone is not infected - they're designed for use on people who have NO REASON to suspect they may have covid and ONLY on these people.

And vaccines don't stop ANYONE getting infected - Pfizer reports 95% efficacy against symptom onset and ONS suggests the efficacy is higher still against developing severe illness.

I had similar last week, just a cold. Fingers crossed for you too.

You say you bubble with two people...what have they been up to? It's not just about where you go and who you have contact with, their activity is also important.

This happened to a work colleague, had covid late last year, negative on lateral flow test, had both doses of vaccine but is suffering with a high temp, no other symptoms, 111 advice was to get pcr test, test was negative.
I assume that the defualt is to pcr for everything just incase!

You might not have caught Covid but you’ve definitely caught something
Just goes to show how exposed we all are

What was the result op? There's another thread like this where someone is ill after the vaccine.

I've had the test result late because our ward clerk accidentally got my mobile number wrong when she gave it to the swab team; so I was really worrying! But it's all sorted out & it's negative luckily!

I do feel really poorly but at least it's not Covid!
It's a fluey cold type of thing, I could have caught it anywhere I guess.

That's great news. I hope you feel better 💐

Great news, but please don’t assume if you get ill again it can’t be covid. You should have got yourself a test not waited until told to.
Surgical masks don’t protect you. Walking through a corridor after someone with covid has walked through will allow you to catch it, like a supermarket or any shop you walk through.
Some of those patients will test negative and then develop covid whilst in hospital but not be tested every day.

The same way you have caught whatever flu virus you have, despite the mask. Unless you’re wearing a FP3 from inside the house door to return, you can catch anything.

I do realise now I should've phoned work for a test as soon as I got the sore throat the day before my shift.
I just was worried about being off sick because my sickness score is high (I have problems with Schizoaffective disorder) although actually I forgot we don't score for Covid related reasons!
Also I thought a sore throat wasn't a symptom... I didn't have a temperature until I phoned work anyway.