What's your threshold for PCR testing?

[TheVampiresWife]

Are you testing for very mild cold symptoms, for example, even if multiple LFTs are negative? Or do you stick to the three 'official' symptoms listed?

I have ridiculous sinuses and if I PCR'd every time I had a bunged up/slightly runny nose I'd be forever isolating. I do LFTs two or three times a week (daily if I'm having a sinus flare) though.

DD had a very, very mild cold last week (slight runny nose/a bit stuffy first thing, no illness as such) and did daily LFTs (all negative).

How do you decide when to PCR?

Just seen on Twitter, the main Omicron symptoms are different to the main 3 for Delta. Omicron are apparently:

Fatigue
Night sweats
Scratchy dry throat
Muscle aches

I have suspected Omicron and can vouch all these symptoms. Night sweats that soak you through, tiredness, dry throat like your tonsils are sticking to the back of your throat. Muscle aches in my lower legs.

You can ignore the Zoe requests to test, @TheVampiresWife. They are only requests. Also a lot of the symptoms they ask about say “unusual” for you.

@dropitlikeitsloth

Just seen on Twitter, the main Omicron symptoms are different to the main 3 for Delta. Omicron are apparently:

Fatigue
Night sweats
Scratchy dry throat
Muscle aches

I have suspected Omicron and can vouch all these symptoms. Night sweats that soak you through, tiredness, dry throat like your tonsils are sticking to the back of your throat. Muscle aches in my lower legs.

Interestingly, I had the lower leg muscle aches with covid in March 2020. So bad I couldn't stand.

Menopause has been causing night sweats for about two years and fatigue is part of my RA - just goes to show how so many other conditions have similar symptoms, and how difficult it is to know when a PCR is necessary.

DD had a mild cold. Had a very slight cough ivernight and was coughin a bit in the morning to clear her chest. Cough was gone by 9am.

I took her for a PCR test because I lnew she had been with a friend whi had tested positive. DD was positive. She had very very mild cold symtpoms, that was all. I would not have tested if I hadn’t known about the close contact. But I would test now knowing what I do. All lateral flow tests were negative.

@DramaLlllama would you test your dd of had those symptoms again a month or two later though ?

I generally stick to three main symptoms: easy to do with a fever (either it's raised or it isn't), but it's the cough I find most difficult to assess. Is it just a bit of a cough? Is it just a tickly cough because you've got a snotty nose? And my DD and I get coughs at the drop of a hat.

I tend err on the side of caution, but I know people who think I'm overly cautious.

@DramaLlllama

DD had a mild cold. Had a very slight cough ivernight and was coughin a bit in the morning to clear her chest. Cough was gone by 9am.

I took her for a PCR test because I lnew she had been with a friend whi had tested positive. DD was positive. She had very very mild cold symtpoms, that was all. I would not have tested if I hadn’t known about the close contact. But I would test now knowing what I do. All lateral flow tests were negative.

I has sneezing and a headache did an LFT and it was negative. Then was told someone I was near had tested positive, so did a PCR to be safe and it came back positive. I’d never have done the PCR if I hadn’t found out about my friend testing positive.