Negative lateral flow 6 days after positive PCR

[appleturnovers]

Need advice on self isolating within the house.

I got a positive PCR test 6 days ago, the rest of the household tested negative. So I have been self isolating from them, sleeping in a separate room, wearing mask etc. As well as not leaving the house.

We’ve also all been doing daily lateral flow tests. Today my LFT was negative for the first time. DH thinks this means I am no longer infectious. Now, I just want to make clear that I WILL continue to stay in the house until the obligatory 10 days is up as per to the rules, BUT I am wondering if this means it is safe for me to start having contact with the rest of the family. I have an 18 month old so if I’m not infectious anymore it would be really, really really helpful to know about it so I can actually pick her up and look after her.

So, is DH right? Does a negative lateral flow mean I’m not infectious anymore?.

I don’t think anyone can say categorically. It is more infectious at the beginning I think everyone agrees.
It’s your call. If you had symptoms for a couple of days before the test that might make it more hopeful as well.

I suppose the other question is how much of a disaster would it be for the rest of the household to catch it? Are they likely to pass it on? Can your husband work from home and so on.
Personally, I get less and less assiduous and more and more revolted every time I do a swab test so perhaps testing yourself every day wasn’t a good idea.

I think it's an urban myth that negative left = not infectious. I'd like to see some data on that.
Impressive that your household hasn't caught it from you. It ripped through ours like wildfire (dates suggest it spread before first symptoms, so would have been very difficult to prevent).
Hope you feel better soon.

Negative *LFT

I think don't risk it. Having said that, when I had covid I didn't isolate from the rest of the family quite as strictly as you have (in partic I didn't wear a mask but I did sleep, cook, eat separately, keep my distance, separate towels, handwashing, open doors & windows etc) and none of them caught it. I thought this was really surprising but I also think I was especially susceptible as I'd had the non-covid supercold shortly before.