Lft

[Karma1981]

My dd has tested positive on 4 lft from 2 different boxes, but has just had a negative pcr.
She has symptoms and was sat next to 2 children at school who has tested positive.
I don't know what to do?
The picture is how they have all looked so not a faint line at all.

If she has 4 postive LFTs and has been in close contact with 2 children who have since tested positive I would be very surprised if she wasn't also positive.

Retest with the PCR in a few days, but I would be isolating and treating her as positive.

I agree with Whinge

Symptoms plus pos lfts followed by neg pcrs is a known thing and is being investigated. Current PHE advice in this situation is to treat as covid and isolate accordingly.

Retest with another pcr in two or three days as well.

Are you in the south? I read yesterday they were investigating a high number of positive LFTs but negative PCRs, although the person investigating it said he thought it was people 'gaming' the system to get days off. Which is concerning as that sounds like they don't want to actually look into the issue.
I'd say covid, the rate of false negatives is higher than false positives.

I've booked a home test to come tomorrow, she is isolating in her room atm.
@colettesearrings have you got a link to that? I think the school may tell me for her to go in

@Whichjab

Are you in the south? I read yesterday they were investigating a high number of positive LFTs but negative PCRs, although the person investigating it said he thought it was people 'gaming' the system to get days off. Which is concerning as that sounds like they don't want to actually look into the issue. I'd say covid, the rate of false negatives is higher than false positives.

And yes in the South West, these were yesterday's LFTs.

There are a few threads on here with the same. She clearly has Covid as she has symptoms and is a close contact, so keep her at home and wait for the new PCR.

inews.co.uk/news/covid-lateral-flow-tests-negative-pcr-1236141

It's been linked upthread. Re "gaming" the system, that's not exactly what was said, it's simply one possible explanation and not the most likely but as Whichjab also said, the false negative rate of pcrs is many times higher than the false positive rate of lfts so it's vastly more likely that there is some mechanism by which lfts are reacting sooner to delta or some other aspect of the virus. PHE are investigating and I highly doubt "they don't want to know" the cause.

@ColettesEarrings

Symptoms plus pos lfts followed by neg pcrs is a known thing and is being investigated. Current PHE advice in this situation is to treat as covid and isolate accordingly.

Do you have a link to the new PHE advice? I'd be interested as we've been told children with positive LFT but negative PCR should be allowed to return to school. If PHE are saying the opposite then i'd really appreciate some evidence.

@ColettesEarrings

It's been linked upthread. Re "gaming" the system, that's not exactly what was said, it's simply one possible explanation and not the most likely but as Whichjab also said, the false negative rate of pcrs is many times higher than the false positive rate of lfts so it's vastly more likely that there is some mechanism by which lfts are reacting sooner to delta or some other aspect of the virus. PHE are investigating and I highly doubt "they don't want to know" the cause.

You are probably right, I'm just jaded and have lost trust in this government and the associated departments.

From what I have read it's very unlikely to give a positive result if you don't have covid.
Esp a strong positive like my daughters are.
Also I have tested the whole of my household and all negative, if they were both a faulty batch of boxes surely we would all test positive?
Also she has her covid jab next week so what to do about that?

We’ve had the same! I think either LFTs picking up another flu/virus or a faulty batch of PCRs - are you in the south? All 4 of us have had strong positive LFTs from various batches all week now with symptoms and negative PCRs. We’ve been advised to do more so posted some home PCRs today - see what they say!

Whinge it’s not official advice, that’s the problem! The best there is is quotes from UKHSA contained in the news article already linked.

Just seen on Twitter they are looking into this issue as worried it’s either a bad batch of LFT’s or a strain not picked up on PCR’s.

Where on Twitter does it say?

I have noticed my area had gone from 200 cases to a drop of 50/60 a day instantly the past week.
No wonder why if pcr are not detecting covid.
I also tested her with the new style LFTs and yep as positive as they come.
Surely they can not have 4 bad batches from different places and different times?

This happened to my child about 3 weeks ago. Pos lfts, followed by 2 neg pcrs. We treated it as covid and isolated for 10 days, though I know of plenty of other parents who had the same situation and sent their kids back to school. I think the pcrs are wrong, and showing false negatives.

And my child is in secondary so expected to test twice weekly.
So what happens if for the next so many weeks she gets a negative pcr and then has to do the LFTs for school and keeps testing positive so has to keep isolating and then doing more PCRs.

She won't have to do the lfts. And they're voluntary anyway.

@JanglyBeads

Whinge it’s not official advice, that’s the problem! The best there is is quotes from UKHSA contained in the news article already linked.

Ah damn. The previous poster made it sound like PHE had issued new guidance, which would have been really helpful. It's a shame it's not official advice.

There was a news article on Points West yesterday… the scientist on there said treat symptoms &positive LFTs as covid even if pcr neg, he said the main problem people would have was accessing support to isolate without a confirmed pcr.

Just got her results back from posting them yesterday and its positive for covid.