Do I have covid? LFT faint positive, PCR negative

[Nurri]

I have been testing since nov 11. On that day I got faint positive LFT and PCR done that day was negative.
Nov 13 another faint positive.
Nov 15 negative PCR
Nov 16 positive LFT
Nov 19 positive LFT
Nov 20 negative PCR. Coughing and hard to breath started.
Nov 22 positive LFT
Today I still feel it is hard to breath. My amazfit watch shows me blood oxygen 93-97 (once 87). It always have showed me 99 until now but I guess it isn't very reliable.
Some days I have low grade fever 37-37,2C.

How long am I supposed to test? Why does LFT turn out positive if I don't have covid? Does it pick up something else? Am I imaging that it is hard to breath? When will I know I have to seek help?

I dont't know if I have had any contact with covid positive but my grandmother had it in the beginning on October (I didnt have contact with her when she got covid and when she got positive pcr). She had covid pneumonia but I went to visit her only when she was well at the end of October.

This is my LFT from yesterday. It can't be false positive?

Book another pcr to be sure.
37.2 isn't a low grade fever

@alexio

Book another pcr to be sure. 37.2 isn't a low grade fever

I just normally have 35.8-36.2. After all this time, can the pcr show up positive?

Could you have had covid recently? You aren't supposed to lateral flow after covid for a few weeks as it will still be positive. Could explain positive lateral flows but negative pcr.

Hard to say, I don't know anybody who has had recently covid (beside my grandmother who I had no contact). My husband has done the same LFTs and he had them negative. I have felt fine until last saturday... And LFT from yesterday is darker than first one I did.

My daughter tested positive on a lft 10 days ago. Today she took a lft for school and it was negative. So personally can’t see that. I would suggest another pcr sounds like Covid tbh.

No advice sorry.. It sounds bizarre why the PCR is negative. Makes no sense

Of course you’ve got Covid, why do you even doubt it? Get another PCR if you want but your positive LFTs and symptoms tell you what it is already.

And I hope you feel better soon!

You have Covid. False negative PCRs are very common.

False positive tests (either type) are extremely rare (around 1 in 1000)

I am going through the same for my daughter and a lot of people are on here too. If you have symptoms and have had at least one positive lateral flow I would assume covid. As a pp said, it’s more common to have a negative PCR which is false than a false positive lateral flow.
I would stick with the PCR testing, doing another one in a few days.
The only other thing I can see it being is that you just caught the tail end of it on the lateral flow therefore it’s not picking it up on the PCR now.

Your ltf looks like a definite positive and you have symptoms so I would think it's definitely covid
I have had a false positive ltf but this was with very mild symptoms of a cold that never got any worse and I had one faint grey second line on a ltf followed by numerous negative ltfs and a neg pcr. If I'd had another positive ltf or felt more poorly I would gave assumed it was covid and something was wrong with the pcr

The darkening lines are a sure sign of it being a current infection I would think too

Thank you, I will try to get another PCR and will let you know how it'll turn out, although it feels like the test just won't turn out positive and I am getting my nose poked just for fun..

Do report back…

PCR detects active infection and always trumps lft. You do not have covid.

PCR detects active infection and always trumps lft. You do not have covid.

This is completely untrue. The chance of having a false-negative PCR is much higher that having a false-positive LFT.
The chance of a false positive LFT is really, really low - you have Covid.

Regardless, gov advice is that you do not isolate if you test positive lft and then negative on pcr. They state pcr is the determining test - i my work you cant just stay of because you think lft is better - thats not what the gov rules say

That also surely refers to one false pcr - OP has had 3 negative PCRs!

But she is also symptomatic. The guidelines say to talk to your employer before returning to work. And I don’t think that the LFT is better. I know that is extremely unlikely to get a false positive.

Although did you see what happened in wales lol.

Order a postal kit. There is another Immensa lab scandal at the moment so could be false negative PCRs from a lab. I would say positive LFTs and symptoms = positive.

@Watapalava

PCR detects active infection and always trumps lft. You do not have covid.

Completely untrue watapalava. Given the high population levels of Covid in the UK at the moment and the fact that the OP has had symptoms, it's significantly more likely that the OP has had false negative PCRs than that she's had false positive LFTs.

And that's without factoring in the suspicions of ongoing problems in PCR labs.

The government may advise you to treat the PCR as definitive for various reasons, but that's not what the maths says.

OP, were your PCRs all drive-in testing centre or all posted? If so, get one by a different method if you can. With the Immensa scandal, postal results were giving positives in some of these cases because they were analysed at a different lab from the test centre ones.

As said above.

Chance of a false positive lft is less than 2%. (lower still with symptoms).
Chance of a false negative PCR can be as high as 20-30%.

You have covid.

The government guidance needs to change - isolate with a positive from either LFT or PCR. I suspect they haven't done this as they don't want people relying on LFT's which do miss more cases. They are however very reliable when they pick up a positive.