Will I have to cancel the holiday in case I get a false positive pcr?

[Frogsandsheep]

I have covid and have been really unwell with it. I’ve been advised both my the T&T and my doctor that I can get false positives on a pcr for up to 90 days. I am supposed to be going abroad next month - will I have now have to cancel in case I get a false positive?

I can’t see how I can risk it as I can’t afford to quarantine again. I’m only going away for 6 nights then straight back to work :-( I’ve had such a miserable week and the prospect of losing my holiday has made me really sad

In a similar situation- I hope someone knows the answer.

I haven’t looked into it yet - but I understand there’s an antigen test you can get instead of the PCR. If you’re in this situation of recent infection.

Have you checked the travel company website for information?

Depending on the destination you might be able to show a certificate of recent infection instead

You can get a certificate of infection, which will be ok depending on where you are going. I understand that Spain still insist on a negative test, but that may have recently changed. If you are still unwell when you go, you may need to cancel and claim on insurance, which should hopefully cover covid.

My friend was worried about the same thing, but in the end the PCR was negative even though he'd had Covid recently.

Are you vaccinated, OP? If so you won’t have to do the 3 day prior to return test in Spain. You would still have to do the 2 days after arrival test though.

I am double . Sadly the country I am going to won’t accept recovery certificates. I can’t believe this :-( I’m going to have to cancel aren’t i?

*double vaccinated

You can try a LFT test every few days after your isolation to see if you still have the viral load in your system. If you are feeling ok, it might be that you have covid lightly and your PCR next month could come up negative.

Just don’t do the test properly-does anyone watch?

@Profilejacket

Just don’t do the test properly-does anyone watch?

If you don’t do the test properly it will just come back void which won’t help at all.

Might be different for the pcrs but I’ve seen plenty of people not do the lft properly and they’ve never got a void.
But nevertheless I think a certificate from the dr would be best way.

I had the same stress in July! Are the PCR tests not due to be scrapped soon? Do you have to do a PCR to get there or just the day 2? I did very very minimal swabbing on mine, about 32 days after covid and all came back negative.

The 90 days is very unusual - the average number of days to be clear on PCR is 17 days after self isolation ends.

i think it is theoretically possible but not particularly likely. Get some free LFTs and see what they say.