How can you travel back to the UK if you've had Covid in last 3 months

[natwesty]

We have a trip booked for next month, but my sister currently has Covid. She'll be well out of quarantine by then, but could still test positive for 90 days. To return we all need to test negative for the UK pre-arrival lateral flow test (ie the one you take before flying home) but she's likely to test positive meaning she'd have to quarantine abroad....say she does that for 10 days, then what happens? She test again and it's positive again and the whole cycle starts again?! How is this supposed to work for people who have previously been infected? Has anyone had experience of knowing average times to test negative again on lateral flows and/or travelled post recovery?

I tested negative on lat flows after day 11, I did test now and again just to check after, but nothing

Not likely that she will test positive on a lateral flow. My DS was negative on a lateral flow by day 9 when he had Covid.

I was negative on LFT by day 10 too. I'll ignore any isolation that gets advised if I test positive on the 2 day return test.

Well she can easily do a few nhs LF now and see if it shows positive? Mine were negative by day 11.
Pcr on day 2 is a bigger issue I think.

She's positive on lateral flows at the moment, but only around day 5 so just trying to plan ahead and work out the risk of having to cancel.

We're relaxed about day 2 as she's fine to isolate at home - just don't want to get stuck abroad.

I've seen reports that there will be a review on 20 Dec so fingers crossed they ease the travel restrictions (because it's spreading in the community, so effectively pointless having them) but still keen to weigh up the odds incase they are still in.

There was just an article in the Guardian about this exact issue. Afraid the advice was to cancel the trip article here

Lateral flows tend to go negative quite quickly, typically by the time isolation ends for most.