LFT positive what now? Im confusing myself and worrying

[Makinganewthinghappen]

My 16 year old had cold symptoms this morning and just felt generally unwell she looks pretty terrible. I have ordered a PCR test but in the meantime we have lfts and so i thought it would do no harm to do one of those while we wait.

It was positive.

We have 5 other children so i whipped out a box of tests and did them all i swear i can see very faint lines on one or two but its like pregnancy tests and now i seem to see lines everywhere.

Luckily they are all home educated anyway so we dont have to worry about whether they should go to school but im confused about who should be isolating now? Who needs pcr tests?

Dd who tested positive is 16 and had her vaccination about two weeks ago - dh and I are both double jabbed the other kids are too young.

Dh was supposed to be shielding in the first/ second waves but obviously not now.

Sorry for the rambling post i am a little worried !

As far as I know, your DD does the PCR test. If she's positive she isolates for 10 days. If negative, ignore the LFT. You and DH don't need to isolate but do need to do LFTs.

Book pcr tests for all of you. I can only see a line on the top one but it might be my phone. Anyone you think has a line needs to isolate until they’ve got a negative pcr test.

I think they advise PCR tests for all close contacts, but it might be a bit too soon for the rest of you, unless you think others may have been in contact with the same source.

None of you need to isolate officially, but I think I would keep all contacts to a minimum whilst any of you could be incubating the virus.

If she comes back positive, you are all close contacts of the 16 year old so the advice is to do pcr tests not LFT tests. You might as well just do them now.

Public health has been really crap pushing this.

You all need pcr tests.

LFT can only work if the viral load is high enough.

Ok i have ordered a load of pcr tests to the house (we dont have a car so we cant just go to the test centre)

That sounds like a sensible plan. Hope your daughter recovers quickly

We have cancelled all our plans - dh has been sent home from work (they dont seem keen for him to go on the two day business trip he was literally about to leave on!)

My 5 year old is acting like im the worst mum in the world because i said no gymnastics.

Im guessing i just need to keep an eye on dd and check she is not getting any worse.

If your DDs PCR is positive and the rest negative then also remember it could just have been too soon for yours to show positive. It would be worth re testing you all in a couple more days.

And yes, I know it's not law now, but if someone in our household tests positive then the rest of us won't be doing anything other than going for walks (and school because I'll have no choice about that) so we can minimise our contacts.

Members of the family can have a test as potential close contacts. I'd take all those with a possible faint line and your DD. Others may not have it at the moment, but obviously could be at risk of catching it, so you could get them tested if you get positive test(s) back.

I have given dd paracetamol and sent her to bed. Is there anything else i can do for her? Shes very sad she is also autistic so i think shes taking it pretty hard !

Depends on where you are. In Scotland close contacts of a positive PCR need to isolate until they receive a negative PCR. Even with a negative you also need to be double-vaxxed etc to end isolation.

From a positive lateral flow your dd needs to self isolate till pcr result back- obv if that's positive she isolates for ten days
Technically the rest of you don't need to isolate if under 18 and double jabbed
We had this Monday but we all stayed home and all had pcr tests. Only dd positive. Rest of the house- son and Dh back to school me and oldest dd working from home as per company policy, it's very strange and I'm not very comfortable with it all I feel like I'm having to make difficult choices again and feel very guilty sending son to school but that is school policy.

My dd positive, only dh works from home all of us supposed to go to work now and I work in close quarters with lots of people! Lots and lots.. If I was a super spreader I could take down quite a few