Should I take another PCR?

[TickledOnion]

Got a sore throat and cough that only affects me in the morning and at night. It started last Monday, got a negative LFT. Took a PCR on Wednesday got a negative on a Friday. Had my booster Friday evening. Still got the sore throat and the cough every morning and night but was coughing so bad last night it kept me up for a couple of hours. Should I take another PCR? If it’s positive when would I isolate till? My 10 days since symptoms began are over tomorrow.

Take a lateral flow

And see if you can get hold of some cough medicine to help you sleep. Steam also helps.

I thought if you had "symptoms" you were supposed to go straight to PCR

You normally isolate from when symptoms started but I heard someone (dr) on the radio say that in this sort of situation you should isolate from the most recent + PCR as there could be an overlap of cold/covid and you don’t know when you started.

Don’t take LFT as they are not for people with symptoms.

As your cough has got worse, I think you should take another PCR, just to be sure

The reason you’re not meant to LTF is because they can give you a false negative, so people with covid will merrily be out and about without knowing. PCRs are more accurate.

But given the OP has already done a PCR I think a lateral flow in the meantime just to see wouldn’t be the worst idea.

It’s not that they suddenly stop working when you’ve got symptoms, they can just miss cases that PCR would catch.