Covid relapse after 10 days?

[bonbonours]

Tested positive for Covid three weeks ago. Mild symptoms. By day 10 just had the very slightest cough remaining so was told no longer infections no need to isolate further. A further 10 days pass with barely any cough, feeling totally fine. Now I suddenly have a headache, blocked or runny nose, sneezing, feel exactly the same as I did on day 4 or 5 of Covid.
Been told not to test as you can get a false positive (especially so soon after). I've researched and I can't find anything about a relapse and whether it makes you infectious again. All the cases I read about are either reinfection several months later or long covid where symptoms never went away.

Do I just have a cold? Should I isolate? Test? God knows..... It can't be a new infection ten days later surely?

No point doing a PCR test, but you could do a LFT just to see if your viral load is enough to give a positive test. Your immune system has probably been knocked due to having covid, so you could have picked up a cold. I would stay home depending on how you are feeling, but would think you are no longer infectious for covid, but maybe for a cold.

There's loads of cold about.
We've all had it here, negative test so not covid.
All my sister's house have had it, so I wouldn't discount it being "just a cold"

I had Covid during a lockdown, so little chance to be infected with a cold straight after.
I was ill for about a week, felt better for a couple of days & was then ill again for at least another 10 days. Quite a few people I know had a similar up & down.

I've had a couple of really heavy colds recently as has dd. PCRs negative. Done 2 each time as symptoms very covid like and daily lft's lots else going about it seems.

When you got out of your 10 day SI did you overdo it a bit? There is a lingering symptoms thread. Lots of people still feel rough 3 or 4 weeks after their positive test ( I went in to hospital on about Day 14 after having felt better). Take it easy and rest. Just because SI is 10 days doesn't mean it just goes away because that's a magic day. If you remember back to the start of the pandemic (so long ago!) SI was 14 days. Like any virus it can hang around.

@bonbonours

Tested positive for Covid three weeks ago. Mild symptoms. By day 10 just had the very slightest cough remaining so was told no longer infections no need to isolate further. A further 10 days pass with barely any cough, feeling totally fine. Now I suddenly have a headache, blocked or runny nose, sneezing, feel exactly the same as I did on day 4 or 5 of Covid. Been told not to test as you can get a false positive (especially so soon after). I've researched and I can't find anything about a relapse and whether it makes you infectious again. All the cases I read about are either reinfection several months later or long covid where symptoms never went away.

Do I just have a cold? Should I isolate? Test? God knows..... It can't be a new infection ten days later surely?

Are you vaccinated or unvaccinated? This is super common in unvaccinated people. Happened to tonnes of my friends. The illness waxes and wanes for a while. Doesn't seem to happen in the vaccinated though.

Happened to me and I'm vaccinated!

Happened to me too and I'm vaccinated.

Oh wow, how long did it take to fully recover?

Still not there yet. Tested positive beginning of August...

Sorry, should have said I'm fully vaccinated... my son now has a snotty nose and a slight cough too. I've had him PCR tested today, and working on the basis that if he is negative (his LFT was negative) then it's probably a cold that I have also got.

I have heard of it coming and going but usually not when people had it mildly and were completely fine in between, more when they were quite unwell, they thought they were improving and then got worse again. Also there is zero info out there on whether you are infectious again if it comes back as part of the same infection. Something I read said doctors didn't even know the answer.

Actually, virus doesn't go away because certain days has passed, does it? So I assume you may get better, but if the virus is still in your body, symptoms can come back, if it tips to worse?
I 've read that average infectious period after infection is 5 ~ 15 days, and some people take nasty turn after a while it has been at the start, so I would assume it's possible you still haven't recovered fully yet, rather than relapsed.