Sneezing and blocked nose aka a cold - would an LFT show positive if covid?

[FlatteredFool]

Or would an LFT be totally useless in this situation? Dc was sneezy and snotty yesterday but has woken up really congested and sneezing. She's fine in herself.

That’s how my positive case showed up, it was only a VERY minor change in smell and taste that made me do a speculative test, followed by a + PCR.

Wouldn't hurt to try as a positive would be informative, but don't take a negative result as 100% accurate.

LFT's do work on symptomatic Covid, but a PCR is needed to confirm the results and crucially for data capture and sample analysis (or variants/mutations). So absolutely no harm in doing one but do a PCR as well.

That's what I have a heavy cold, runny nose.

4 negative lfts before positive this morning. Double jabbed as well

Mine didn't. LFTs are rubbish. I tested positive on 2 different PCRs but LFTs all negative.

It might but not necessarily. I have Covid right now with only the very mildest of cold symptoms and nothing else. I do twice weekly LFTs. First was negative and second was positive, confirmed by PCR. But I did 3 more LFTs while waiting for the PCR (pointless waste, I know) and only 1 of the was positive. So they def can't rule covid out.

It's going to cause problems. On the one hand, you can't go running off for PCRs all through winter whenever you have a sniffle. But, at the same time, I was out and about during the most infectious time because I thought it was 'just a sniffle'.

Many people who have had covid confirmed with a pcr don't ever show positive on a lateral flow or it takes days to do so.. they aren't accurate at all.

LFTs aren't accurate enough to say for sure you don't have covid

Mine did, I only had a runny nose.

My whole family and DP's family have 'the sniffles' and we're all daily testing negative on the Lateral Flows.

It's quite spooky, going to work or going to a pharmacy thinking, 'I might have covid'. We remain committed mask-wearers though to try to mitigate.

And we try to keep out distance in indoor places especially.

We had a recent big covid outbreak at my workplace (everyone had been double vaccinated) and 3 of the people who tested PCR positive had negative lateral flows. Lateral flows are only useful for asymptomatic population screening, as if enough people do them we will pick up some asymptomatic positive cases that would otherwise have gone unnoticed. They are absolutely not a reliable way of excluding covid in symptomatic people, you need a PCR test for that.

I wish the government/NHS would change the criteria for testing to make things easier but then in my family we'd be doing PCRs weekly. We pick up everything going and have had so many isolations but never tested positive. I'm glad we've never been positive obviously, it's just so frustrating but that's the way of it I guess.

Please take a pcr , my lateral flow test didn't go positive till after I got a positive pcr .

I have a slightly blocked nose and a tickly throat (not a cough). Taken multiple negative LTFs. I didn't think I needed a PCR because I don't have any of the big 3 symptoms but I just went to get a walk in PCR based on the responses on this thread 🤷‍♀️ the do I/don't I and the fact we apparently can't trust lateral flows is messing with my head!

It seems like lft do pick up the cases if the viral load is great. It has been talked about time and time again, and once pcr positive, lft will likely to be positive too.
The guide line is totally clear, once you have symptoms, you need to get pcr, not lft.
I don't know why the gov don't change the testing criteria to most recent ones. But it really up to you. You don't need to test and send your dc to school with negative lft, but if she infect other children, you and your dc are the ones who have to deal with the consequences.
I would just get pcr and make sure.

Those were the only symptoms DC2 had.

He had a positive LTF, followed by a negative PCR on the same day, then a positive PCR a few days later. We had to test as DC1 had tested positive earlier.

Awaiting PCR results. dc3 is down with the same thing but with a fever and cough too.

Let us know what happens OP.

Hope your daughter recovers quickly.

All negative thankfully. Just another virus going round.

If you’re going to test for potential symptoms may as well skip the LFT as if positive you need a PCR as well and if LFT is negative you can’t rely on it anyway