Incubation period/when to test?

[ohhhwhatnow]

Yesterday, I had a coffee outdoors with a friend (Anne). She's just messaged to say her husband (Bob) has just tested positive and she's getting a PCR test done.

How long do I have to wait until I can be reasonably certain I don't have Covid? I know I don't need to self-isolate under the rules until/unless Anne tests positive, but I was supposed to be seeing another friend (Charlie) next week who is CEV and who worries about Covid even more than me.

I imagine Anne will get her PCR test back by Tuesday - if it's negative, am I 'safe'? Should I do a LFT in the meantime? (If so, how long do I wait for it to be effective?)

Anne, Bob and I all do not have any symptoms (but Bob definitely has Covid).

It's not so much about what rules apply, it's more what can I do to make sure I've minimised my risk to Charlie when I see her. Is the answer to reschedule by a couple of weeks or can I feel safer sooner?

Has she definitely done a PCR?
My friend has anxiety around covid due to having to take immunosuppressants, we were meant to meet up last week but my son was isolating due to a contact in school, so we rearranged it.
I think you would be fine though, I'm sure you don't have the same contact with your friend as I do with my son
You could wait until she gets her PCR test results back and go from there?
It's nice that you're being considerate

I wore a mask most of the time, but obviously I couldn't when we were drinking coffee, and apparently the amount of time we spent together chatting counts as a close contact.

I think if Bob has Covid and he was going to pass it to Anne, given he's already tested positive, I'd imagine she should test positive now...? So a PCR negative would unlikely be a false negative...? I mean, they live together.

She's definitely done the test, and she'll let me know what the results are as soon as she gets them.

I'll be honest, I'm eying my stash of LFTs and not really sure what the point of them is. Both Anne and Bob tested negative with LFTs earlier in the week (they do them for work) and yet Bob had a positive PCR test.

I'm just very confused! I'd like to be considerate, but I'm feeling very uncertain as to what my next steps are, pending Anne's PCR result.

Well my son tested positive on Tuesday evening with a LFT, Wednesday by PCR. I’ve been testing by LFT since especially as I had a headache from Thursday morning but all were negative. Until tonight, now I’ve got a faint positive. So it’s taken a good few days, but of course I’ve been in the same house with my son so might have caught it later.

I’d let your friend know so he can make a decision if he wants to take the risk.

It will possibly be incubating in your friend though so she doesn't need a PCR unless she gets symptoms. Even if her PCR is negative it doesn't mean anything, that's why she needs to isolate for 10 days. You won't know I'm afraid until her 10 days is up

Thank you. So the safest option to wait 10 days from when Bob tested positive, even if Anne tests negative? And if Anne tests positive, I need to wait for 10 days since I had coffee with her?

If she doesn't test positive, should I get tested at any point myself? (Assuming I have no symptoms, would the LFTs be any good?)

It's annoying, but I know Charlie would rather reschedule. He's even more cautious than I am. Once I've figured out the safe plan, I'll let him know at that stage, to save him from frantically googling like I've been doing!

(I wouldn't normally meet up with people after work, but Anne's been having a tough time lately, and I thought it was low risk... Sigh.)

You should tell your CEV friend that you are the contact of a contact, because he may for very good reasons want to take an extra cautious approach. Let him decide

Anne could have been incubating it when you saw her.

Usually, people are infectious in the 48 hours or so before symptoms start.

So she should isolate - testing won't release her from the need to SI.

If she becomes symptomatic, or tests positive in the 48 hours or so following when you met, then you are a contact and need to SI. If she takes a PCR a bit after the 48 hour point (she shouldn't, but there you go) then you're almost certainly in the clear.

Oh, Anne is definitely isolating now - I'm not sure why she got a PCR test done actually. Maybe because Bob has no symptoms so they didn't think she would get any either if she got it, and they wanted to know - or maybe because the Zoe app asked her to? I assume she wasn't contacted by Test and Trace given it was her husband who tested positive and he obviously told her, so I assume she wasn't told to get one done. I didn't ask.

Anyway, it sounds like maybe Anne's taken the PCR test too early for a negative result to be of any helpful knowledge to me, so whatever happens, I probably need to have a conversation with Charlie about pushing back another 10 days just to be ultra safe. So... whatever happens, I think I count 10 days from the day after I saw Anne, which is 10 days from today.

My sister had covid with symptoms. Her husband had the same symptoms but tested nagative. Two days later convinced he had covid he tested again, negative. He waited another two days and as his symptoms were getting worse he tested again, still negative. I think he had a 4th test which was negative again. He finally tested positive on the last day of his isolation period.

@And48

My sister had covid with symptoms. Her husband had the same symptoms but tested nagative. Two days later convinced he had covid he tested again, negative. He waited another two days and as his symptoms were getting worse he tested again, still negative. I think he had a 4th test which was negative again. He finally tested positive on the last day of his isolation period.

Thank you for that, it helped me make a decision.

Going to wait it out for 10 days regardless!

Anne will have been asked to get a test.

Test and Trace are now asking people to do that. My dd tested positive- they told me to isolate and get a PCR even without symptoms. I am assuming that this is because they are getting positives in asymptomatic people and want to trace their contacts. You still have to complete the isolation though even if you test negative.