Faint positive LFT one hour later

[Dauphinois]

DS3 (10) did an LFT tonight before bed and then headed upstairs. By the time we'd got everyone to bed, it was an hour by the time I checked the LFT and saw a faint positive.

The leaflet says to disregard the result after 30 mins so we'll test again in the morning but I wondered if this had happened to anyone else. Has anyone known a false positive after an hour?

I have a habit of leaving them around after I test (twice a week) and have never seen a false positive. Good luck!

I've never had this before either and I've been regularly testing for months

Me neither

Ohh, I'd say it's definitely picking up something, regardless of the time frame. Good luck

Most of our LFTs are left out for ages and I've never seen a false line develop. Good luck, OP. See what the morning brings.

The result after 30 minutes may not be accurate. Test again in the morning!

I had this and then the following day it was a strong positive. I would advise you to get a PCR.

It’s likely you will find he’s positive in the morning I think. I’ve never seen that happen with any of ours having been left out. My dd currently has Covid and her line was just as faint (confirmed by pcr)

Mine was faint line and then strong the next day

Think he’s positive.

Yes I had one like that, all others and PCR negative though

Yes DDs was really faint like that. From my experience of having to do them every day I've never had a negative test turn positive when leaving it out. I suspect you'll get a stronger positive this morning.

Thanks all, I'll test him again as soon as he wakes up.
I reckon it was about an hour after he did it that I finally looked at it and saw the line, so given that I can't pin down the time frame, I'll go with whatever this morning brings.

Note to self: set timers/ alarms / whatever and CHECK THE TESTS AT THE RIGHT TIME!

Found this

Ahh, screenshot won't attach!
Anyway, guidance says if positive line appears after 30mins it should not be reported as positive.

@Dauphinois

Ahh, screenshot won't attach! Anyway, guidance says if positive line appears after 30mins it should not be reported as positive.

You don't know if it appeared before or after the 30 mins though, so I'd definitely repeat it this morning

This happened to me. The next LFT, done a couple of hours, later was positive, as was the subsequent PCR.
I tend to leave them lying around too, and none of them had ever turned positive until the actusl positive one.

Positive again this morning. Still faint but definitely there

:(

I tested positive on LFTs all week but yet two negative PCRs so try not to worry too much... I was an anxious mess but seems I'm fine. I don't have symptoms as such just felt a little run down, I was only testing for work purposes

Faint positive after an hour, no symptoms, negative PCR. This was in summer hopefully before the testing scandal...

So, an update if anyone is interested...

PCR came back negative. Seemed bizarre as we'd done 2 positive LFT's by that point. Did a third LFT, positive AGAIN!

So by that point we had 3 positive LFT's and 1 negative PCR.

Did a 4th LFT, a different brand to the others. Negative.

DC is fine, no symptoms at all. Spoke to Public Health. They advised that PCR overrides LFT so if showing no symptoms, assume no COVID and carry on with life.

So that's what we've done, but it's made me question the accuracy of LFT's. Were they picking up on a similar virus he's had a week or so ago? Is it a problem with that brand? When I switched brands it was negative.

Who knows?

I have the same with DS. Lots of faint positives and lots of negatives. Negative PCR and no symptoms but he's been a close contact 3 times in the last 2 weeks and my DD is positive. Don't really know what to think.

This is happening SO much though, the + LFT followed by - PCR, I mean. Loads of it reported on this board. I'm actually shocked PHE said go right ahead, after that number of + LFTs, and in light of the Wolverhampton lab fuckup.

This morning virtually the same thing happened: DS was testing, did it on his own, all of us forgot to check in the haste to get ready for school and when I saw it, there was a faint positive, but viewed it after the 15-30 minute window. Got him to do another one and watched it like a hawk in the right window. That was definitely negative. So he carried on to school (slightly late by then). He's wearing a mask all day anyway (his choice) but I freaked out and have booked him a PCR to do this evening.

As it happens, the 'very faint line well after the window to observe test' thing happened to me a couple of months ago. It was almost invisible but there (like squinting at a very early pregnancy pee stick). I repeated the test - nothing. Several weeks later I did get Covid (as borne out by +PCR) but that was several weeks after this faint line, can't have been related, and I have concluded it was the mythical 'evaporation line'.

Also, it really doesn't help that you get sent different brands each time you order a pack of LFTs/get sent from school. Some of them have quite different instructions - different wait times, different duration or procedure for dabbling your swab in the test tube, etc. I've been caught out by that before. Not sure it makes that much difference, but how are we to know?

The lfts are very accurate and there seems to be an issue with the way pcrs are processed (lots of labs aren't properly accredited??).

Public health & schools in our area are now saying consider a positive lft to be proof of covid and stay off school, even if you later get a negative pcr.