Data on how fast contagiousness drops off after infection?

[Saracen]

DC is at uni with Covid, they don't know which variant. Official quarantine ends Thurs 23rd, so legally I could go get them the following day. Or we could leave it longer and delay our family Christmas, which wouldn't be a big deal as it's just the immediate household.

I'm quite cautious about us catching Covid. We're lucky enough to be able to avoid most risks. I certainly don't think "we'll catch it anyway", though I know that's possible.

Is there any good data on how likely it is that a person is still infectious 10+ days after symptoms begin?

Thanks!

Apparently even with symptoms, drops off dramatically after day 5 and not infectious in any hospitalised cases by day 9, in Lancet study www.bbc.com/news/health-55006313

LFT will show if they are still shedding

@LooksGood, fantastic, just what I was looking for! Thank you.

@BluebellsGreenbells brilliant. That is a good idea. I hadn't thought of that.

FWIW, my 7yo has had a mild dose of Covid. First symptoms were last Friday afternoon (10th), and he's testing negative on LFTs now though we're all isolating until the end of his isolation period tomorrow.

I saw an interesting article on this today which had a graph of peak infectiousness. I now can't find it on the news sites I read but essentially infectiousness peaked 5 days before and after symptoms/positive test.

My asymptomatic son tested positive on a LFT on Sunday (negative on Saturday), positive PCR on Monday but negative LFTs since Thursday (first day retesting). So I'm presuming he's unlikely to be that infectious if we start to let him mix inside with us.

Track and traces isolation days seem to be quite sketchy.
They take the day you “don’t feel quite right” as apposed to the day you tested positive on an LFT or the day you had one of the main symptoms.
Which in some cases is probably sensible, but other cases it’s not as there could have been a million other reasons why you didn’t feel right.

@EvilPea

Track and traces isolation days seem to be quite sketchy. They take the day you “don’t feel quite right” as apposed to the day you tested positive on an LFT or the day you had one of the main symptoms. Which in some cases is probably sensible, but other cases it’s not as there could have been a million other reasons why you didn’t feel right.

Good point!

In DC's case it does make sense to count from onset of symptoms. They started coughing nonstop on Monday afternoon. Tuesday they were told one of their close contacts had just tested positive for Covid. DC couldn't get an appointment for a PCR test and eventually received one in the post Thursday. So I'm sure we should count from Monday.

Thanks everybody! That is very reassuring, and I will ask them to take an LFT before I pick them up.

Sounds pretty cut and dried on that one then!

My favourite one was the “welllll she was a bit sniffly on the Tuesday after swimming, but the coughing started Saturday”

Ok we will go from Tuesday, so she’s out of isolation tomorrow. Back to school and mingling

My favourite one was the “welllll she was a bit sniffly on the Tuesday after swimming, but the coughing started Saturday” Ok we will go from Tuesday, so she’s out of isolation tomorrow

I found T&T's view on this a bit odd. As I mentioned, my son tested positive on Sunday. He had a sore throat for a few weeks but negative LFTs. T&T insisted on "backdating" his isolation to last Weds so technically his last day of isolation is today.

He's broken up from school but it seemed a bit strange that they weren't more conservative on the isolation period. That said, he's not testing positive on LFTs so maybe it makes sense.

@BluebellsGreenbells

LFT will show if they are still shedding

Possibly. LFT's didn't show positive for me when I was highly infectious and didn't show positive for my DH until days after the PCR...

This was the graph

mnp321 - where is the graph from? There’s a couple of pretty obvious spelling mistakes on it so I can’t imagine that it’s anything official.

It was one of the national newspaper sites. The article has disappeared again but the wider article referenced Professor Neil Ferguson and the government considering whether to shorten the current 10 day isolation perIod. On the basis of the peak infectiousness data plus concerns over essential services with so many isolating.