If you get a positive LFT and a negative PCR does it mean

[CloseYourEyesAndSee]

You never had covid (even if you're 14 and half your tutor group is getting positive LFTs too) or you had it mildly and when you did the PCR you had insufficient viral load to show up on the test?
I find it hard to get how this happens this way round!

Food or drink before a lft can give you a false positive.

I'd repeat the pcr and if still negative take that x

Thanks
I've sent him to school as per government guidelines but I don't understand how he got a negative now. Several of his friends who he is in class with and takes a bus with have had positive LFTs too so it seems far more likely than not that he had it, but the PCR says not.
Obviously I'm pleased but I am curious to know how that works!

The LFT can pick up more than just covid, whereas a PCR specifically only looks for covid.

Ahh! That makes sense, he had cold symptoms. So it may have been just a cold that showed up as covid on the LFT.

My sister had a positive LFT and a negative PCR.

That’s not correct - LFTs are highly specific and will not detect colds or flu www.google.co.uk/amp/s/mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKBN26R3DH

As the link up thread shows, a positive LFT is extremely unlikely to be a false positive - it’s much more likely that you’ll get a false negative PCR result.

@copernicium

The LFT can pick up more than just covid, whereas a PCR specifically only looks for covid.

That's not true.

Sorry, the link wasn’t posted in this thread - it was this one, someone posted it in another thread www.instagram.com/p/CUXwS9jo_pM/?utm_medium=copy_link

So OP I would say that they do have covid, need another test and shouldn’t be at school.
This information really needs to be more widely publicised. Unless of course the plan is to let all kids get infected …

This is interesting.
I have done two LFT and they are positive, done over a couok6of days. I e been feeling really I'll for over a week now and had a pcr at the church hall. It is inconclusive.

OP we were in a similar situation. My ds was really ill with a positive lft. Took him for pcr which was negative followed by 3 negative lft. I was sure he had covid I've never seen him so ill. The week he went back school there were lots of children ofg with positive lft then today he text me to say lots of people were in as their lft were false positives and they'd all had negative pcr results. The school have actually had all the children in this morning to do lft to make sure they are doing them properly. Not sure I trust these tests now.

This is a bit mad isn't it
I assumed he must be negative because supposedly the PCR is much more accurate?? To be fair he seems fine, he had sniffles at the weekend, negative LFT Saturday and positive Monday. He's now totally normal. I wasn't sure about sending him in but that's the advice on gov.uk!!
Could he have had it so mildly that by Tuesday the viral load was so low that it didn't show up on the PCR?

I figured this out today.

Coronaviruses have been round for ages. Covid 19 is this new one. The LFTs pick up and coronaviruses. The PCR just covid 19 strains.

I’m a genius.

@damnthisvirusandmarriage That's simply not true though. Coronaviruses are incredibly common, if LFTs picked them up we would see masses and masses of positives on LFTs, not less than on PCRs.

I suspect it's a dodgy batch of PCRs, but really hope it's not.

My husband had a faint LF on a Sunday. Negative PCR the following day.

Didn’t make any sense, retested later in the week and got a positive PCR, by then he was poorly and we were certain he had it. (Also had done another LF and the line was very strong by then)

@1309username

My husband had a faint LF on a Sunday. Negative PCR the following day.

Didn’t make any sense, retested later in the week and got a positive PCR, by then he was poorly and we were certain he had it. (Also had done another LF and the line was very strong by then)

thanks I'll get him to do another LFT again tomorrow