Do you need to get a pcr test if positive on lateral flow....?

[Lollolloll]

....if you are able to isolate for 10 days and let contacts know?

Dd tested positive on LF at start of half term (a couple of days into first week). Has spent 10 days upstairs revising. Hasn’t been out. Symptoms for one day only. Caught it off a friend who she spent the day with 5 days before who subsequently tested positive.

We let close contacts know and tested the rest of our household who haven’t had it already. (Dh and youngest dc had it one month before and dd’s And me didn’t). We were all negative.

Haven’t been anywhere because we cancelled our plans so couldn’t see the point of pcr testing. Is it mandatory, or just recommended? And if so why?

I would suggest that anyone with a positive lateral flow does a PCR to be able to confirm infection in case of long COVID. A friend's partner is showing symptoms of long COVID but her employer are being very unhelpful as although she had a positive lateral flow, she was caught up in the Immensa testing issue and never had a confirmed PCR. It's causing all manner of problems for her.

@PokemonGoGoGo

I would suggest that anyone with a positive lateral flow does a PCR to be able to confirm infection in case of long COVID. A friend's partner is showing symptoms of long COVID but her employer are being very unhelpful as although she had a positive lateral flow, she was caught up in the Immensa testing issue and never had a confirmed PCR. It's causing all manner of problems for her.

Yes that’s a good point

“ Did you tell the school the LFT result?”

No because the symptoms were a few days after she’d last been in school thankfully.

Do you need to tell them from an information point of view?

So like a lot of these things, in the end, it comes down to whether you’re thinking purely about what suits you most, and what the bigger picture is.

But after the Immensa lab scandal surely we all know the official figures are bollocks? The ONS figures are probably more accurate.

So long as people are isolating if they suspect they are +ve why does it matter?

Like others have said it helps track the spread if it’s officially recorded. From a personal point of view- if your DD is identified as a contact in the next 3 months- say if a friend she’s had contact with gets it in a few weeks time- she’ll be advised to do a PCR, whereas if she’d had a positive PCR over half term she’d be exempt. If that PCR in a few weeks comes back positive- you won’t know for sure if it’s due to the suspected half term infection or a new infection-so DD will have to isolate for another 10 days.

@WorriedGiraffe

It’s mandatory, which has been well advertised for a long time. You can find the info you need about testing quite easily by googling it.

It's not mandatory. Maybe you should take your own advice and Google the requirements. It's quite easy

I know I should've done a PCR when I caught it but I didn't because (1) I was absolutely certain it would be positive, (2) I only had two close contacts in the previous few days and they were family members who had confirmed - by PCR - COVID, and (3) I could not bear the thought of dealing with Test And Bloody Trace for a third time.

DD caught it, then DH, and I self-isolated with them because I knew it was virtually impossible for me to avoid catching it given that I would be breathing the same air as them 24 hours a day. Starting doing daily LFTs and by the time it turned positive I hadn't been out for days so would have no contacts to report to T&T anyway. And nobody who would need confirmation e.g. for work that they had been contacted by T&T as a close contact of mine. Continued daily LFTs, had COVID-like symptoms by this point anyway and lost sense of smell after a few more days. Kept on with the LFTs, got a week's worth of positives and then they turned negative. Continued to isolate for a full 10 days, not including the day I first tested positive. So I followed all the rules in terms of keeping others safe and I know for certain that I can't have infected anyone else. Work were fine with it because they didn't want anyone from a COVID household in the building! I could work from home, so I did that. They never asked me to show proof so didn't need a PCR for that.

Yes if I get Long COVID I might regret not having a PCR, although given I was sharing a bedroom with two confirmed cases and can show photos of all 7 or 8 positive LFTs I would rather hope they would take me seriously in terms of getting treatment.

I'm not fussed about being able to avoid PCR for the next 90 days; why would I take one anyway? For close contacts it's optional if vaccinated. And I'm not going to actually catch COVID again this side of spring!

I feel a little bad that I have skewed the stats, because I also didn't report my many positive LFTs online. But it was entirely because I could not cope with the harassment from T&T. It wasn't too bad for DD, just a couple of calls although they kept ringing and ringing until they'd spoken to me. However DH was kept on the phone for a good hour the first time and then was repeatedly called at 08:01 across several days for no apparent reason that I can discern. He was unwell and it woke him up. I couldn't cope with that level of disturbance (at 8am I was at my desk, even when unwell, rather than asleep - but definitely not wanting regular disturbance). Also the thought of being asked for my close contacts, giving DH and DD's details, and then having to listen to him moan about getting ANOTHER call and receiving a call myself to notify me, as DD's mother, that she was a close contact of a positive case, was just unbearable!

Surely you just don't answer the phone if T&T phone daily.

After doing a PCR a couple of weeks ago and all the bloody questions to be able even book a test then I can see why people might not do so. Luckily most of them aren't mandatory but even so!

I wouldn't bother with a PCR, I'm retired and don't have to worry about bother with work and school and really don't want to be pestered when I am ill, I would just isolate for the ten days. T&T are probably putting a lot of people off getting tests

Some people on here have said that when they ignored the T and T phone calls the local council sent someone round to knock on their door.

Both my son and I have tested positive, I named my partner and other son and gave my contact details for them, and in total I’ve had 4 calls. One for my son to give contact details, one for me to give contact details, and 2 follow up calls for me to check im isolating and doing ok. The first two calls took 30 mins each and the follow up calls took about 2 mins. They really weren’t too onerous!

My husband tested positive. Was laid up for a week fairly poorly despite being doubled jabbed.

Test and trace were a pain in arse phong and wanting to speak with him for ' only 20 mins ' . In the end we stopped answering the phone.

@Sweetpeasaremadeforbees

Some people on here have said that when they ignored the T and T phone calls the local council sent someone round to knock on their door.

Indeed, you can ignore the calls but they come many, many times a day until you answer. Eventually it gets passed to the local council instead and they will call you. (This happened for DD's positive PCR; I answered when I saw it was a local number calling.)

They do indeed literally send someone to bang on the door if you won't answer any phone calls!

It all just feels very intrusive and a lot of it is unnecessary, purely because the system isn't sophisticated enough (despite having £££££££ of public money spent on it) to recognise people who live at the same address and who have already done a recent PCR / got confirmed COVID.

I would 100% want it on our health records if any of us had Covid. What if you develop complications at a later date and there's no proof you've ever had it?

Also, you now don't really know whether you've had it or not, so will need to do LFTs, PCRs etc. any time you get a Covid-like symptom just in case you really have it this time. And those results may show false positives from previous infection if you have had it. Really sounds like you've created more stress for yourself than you've avoided by not getting the PCR.

When DS tested positive I received just one phone call. It was a length one but they didn't expect me to provide details for school contacts or anything.

I thought that in some areas (mostly because of the lab scandal) officials were recommending that if you had a +ve LFT and symptoms, assume you have covid and isolate accordingly. If I needed proof that I'd had covid I'd pay for an antibody test.

Remember a lot of people had covid before testing became common. Are they not entitled to help with long term symptoms purely because the timing was unfortunate?

I'm not sure how helpful an antibody test would be if you've been vaccinated. Can they distinguish between vaccine antibodies and infection antibodies? Also, not everyone develops detectable antibodies (from infection or vaccination).

No. It's not fair for people early on who weren't offered testing. But that doesn't mean it's not sensible to test now that it is available!

Yes they can distinguish between the antibodies if the correct test is carried out.

The issue is putting all trust in the PCR (which may come back -ve even if you have covid) and ignoring the +ve LFT.

We know that because of the lab issues, there are/were thousands of people who produced +ve LFT and went on to get a -ve PCR test and were walking around believing they didn't have covid. Basically those people are in the same position as me i.e. there is no official record of their +ve status plus they cost the NHS more money! (I don't blame them, that was the official advice at the time.)

My whole house hold has tested positive for covid with both lfts and pcrs. I have tested negative. But I'm the most Ill with bad fever and very bad diarrhoea for 5 days now. Surely I don't have a different bug?