Covid and LFTs

[ChinOfThanos]

I tested positive for Covid last week along with my family. Pretty sure it's the delta variant as symptoms are more body aches/tummy issues/ sneezing and headaches. DH and I are double jabbed but still struggled with this one.

My question is once the 10 days are up, should an LFT be negative for Covid if we test ourselves? Before we see family/vulnerable members/elderly parents I want to be sure it's safe but also don't want to wait weeks if I don't need to.

DH and I are early 40s and it's taken it's toll on us. My mum was previously shielding aged 67 with a small hole in her lung whilst DHs parents are mid 70s with health issues, so I dread to think how they would be with this strain of Covid.

TIA

I don’t think it the lateral flow will necessarily be negative after the 10 days. It doesn’t mean you are still contagious though.

I remember when we first started doing them at work we were told that if we tested positive then we shouldn’t continue the lateral flow tests for 90 days after the positive result

You shouldn't do lateral flow test for 3 months after testing positive

Thanks for your replies. So do we just assume after ten days we are not infectious?

The doctors surgery wouldn’t see me in person after my 10 days were up, even though I wasn’t showing any symptoms then.

I was told the opposite to pp by track and trace this week. To not do a PCR for 90 days after isolation with COVID as it will come up with a false positive, but lateral flows only detect the live virus so could be done at the end of 10 days to see if you are still contagious (although they are notoriously inaccurate so I’m not sure that’s much help!?).

My son did a lateral flow 90 mins prior to his initial PCR which was a day before symptoms appeared & it was negative & yet the PCR was positive.

It would be good to get some definitive advice as I don’t understand how the government can be so sure that everyone with COVID is not contagious after exactly 10 days!?

😫😫

Yes I was told virus fragments would remain in my system for up to 90 days so a test could show a false positive.

DS tested positive nearly a month ago. Test and trace rang him on last day of isolation, and told him to continue isolating if he had a temp, was sneezing or had diarrhoea.

He was fine, so came out of his ‘room of doom’, but extra cautious around us the house for another 4 days as DH is CEV.

There was a thread here a while ago where someone posted a link to someone’s LFT results they took daily whilst they had COVID. Will try and find it.

post by conkersarebonkers

It definitely shows up on pcr for ages afterwards, but people I know who've had covid have done LFTs after and been negative. My brother was negative from about day 7.

@theplanetjanet

I was told the opposite to pp by track and trace this week. To not do a PCR for 90 days after isolation with COVID as it will come up with a false positive, but lateral flows only detect the live virus so could be done at the end of 10 days to see if you are still contagious (although they are notoriously inaccurate so I’m not sure that’s much help!?).

My son did a lateral flow 90 mins prior to his initial PCR which was a day before symptoms appeared & it was negative & yet the PCR was positive.

It would be good to get some definitive advice as I don’t understand how the government can be so sure that everyone with COVID is not contagious after exactly 10 days!?

That's interesting. The people at work who had covid were told not to do lateral flow tests for 90 days but maybe guidance has changed or our business manager got it wrong 🤷🏼‍♀️ (which could be likely!!!)

You will have antibodies so won't be contagious even if the test is positive. You won't catch it again for a bit so should be safe.

@HummingBeeBox is that after ten days? So it's safe to mingle? Am feeling a bit tough still but only symptom is headache now

Advice seems to have changed regarding LFT tests. My cousin is just out of 10 day isolation after testing positive. He was told by test and trace to take LTR regularly and that if these were negative he could assume that he is no longer infectious. If you have vulnerable family members, I personally would leave meeting up for another few days, just to be sure.

[quote ChinOfThanos]@HummingBeeBox is that after ten days? So it's safe to mingle? Am feeling a bit tough still but only symptom is headache now[/quote]
I wouldn't meet up with anyone vulnerable if you are still feeling a bit rough. Feeling a bit rough and having a headache imply you are still ill.

I'd avoid mingling until only symptoms are cough/loss of smell or taste as they can persist for ages and aren't a sign of still being ill.

10 days should be long enough for most people to clear the infectious particles, but it's kept low for compliance reasons not because everyone has cleared the virus in that time. I would not rely on tests when you know you've been infected. To meet vulnerable people I would personally leave it 3 weeks and then only if the fever, headache and any sneezing / vomit / diarrhoea have gone.

I'd leave it longer too.

Thanks all. I've not had a cough or loss of taste/smell. Diarrhoea was prior to PCR test, none since and all I have left now is fatigue and slight fuzzy head but then I didn't sleep very well all week.
Hate the gov.uk guidelines, they are so vague and it angers me it doesn't include the symptoms that almost everyone is staying on these threads.

I thought it was the case that LFT look for "active covid" and that if there was even a faint line, that means there's active covid and you can still technically be contagious. Whether there's enough virus to actually infect anything is a different matter.

I stopped testing positive on LFTs on day 15. As it happens, I still felt very slightly below or until then, so didn't see anyone just in case. As of Day 14 I felt absolutely fine. Am on about day 17 now but have stoped counting as feel totally fine.