Has anyone else tried to escape lockdown by doing Sajid's new day 7 or 8 LFT?

[Notverygrownup]

I'm on day 8 of isolation. Heard the news. Yay! I can escape a day or two early by getting 2 clear LFTs.

Only my day 8 LFT lit up like a Christmas tree after 30 seconds. I'm clearly still very very positive.

Have just logged the result online and it says I have to do a new PCR. Really?????

LFTs are very good at detecting when you are infectious. Many people will not be infectious by day 6 but others will, particularly if they are ill.

DS is on day 12 and his lft is still positive! He has no symptoms anymore. I can't see how this will work!

So will he come out of isolation David, or does that mean he is still infectious? (And is he reporting the positive LFTs online?)

Why would you need to report the positive LFT’s on line? It’s to track new cases not to find out people who are still positive. Not being funny with the question, genuinely not sure what it’s going to achieve. I tested with LFT’s throughout the 10 days when I was positive back in Feb but never reported anything apart from the 1st one.

@Siuan

LFTs are very good at detecting when you are infectious. Many people will not be infectious by day 6 but others will, particularly if they are ill.

So, if you have a positive LFT on day 7, you stay isolating? But a positive LFT on day 10, you can end isolation the next day anyway? Is that right? If a positive LFT on day 7 indicates you are infectious, doesn’t one on day 10 indicate the same?

Because I am a compulsive rule follower and assumed that cause it told me to report it, I should! I did wonder for a moment but thought - oh so generously - that it might be useful data for those tracking how long positivity lasts.

Hey ho. Won't report any more LFTs if they are positive - and just hope that I am not plagued with emails and texts forever now from track and trace!!

Why on earth did you log your day 8 LFT online?

(That was to Iheartttc)

DD is on day 6, still very positive. She's only 10 though and DH are a couple of days behind her so it wouldn't make much of a difference anyway, it's not like she can go anywhere by herself!

@TooWicked

Why on earth did you log your day 8 LFT online?

Because that is what the government are advising people to do.

Thank you MrsHa! I guess since this new advice of testing on day 7/8 only emerged this morning, I should have realised that they wouldn't have tweaked the system yet, to update the advice.

Surely you only log your first positive LFT online, not subsequent ones from the same infection?

I think there needs to be some clarification on this LFT testing as some people will test after day 10, despite having recovered, potentially needlessly extending their isolation far longer than they need under the misapprehension that they are infectious.

My understanding is that the reason PCRs, and to a lesser extent LFTs, continue to test positive well after infection is that they recognise dead virus, which of course doesn't make anyone infectious. I've read in studies that showed no one in the studies continued to emit live virus after day 9.

So the message should be that a positive LFT a week or more after the start of your infection doesn't necessarily mean you are infectious - and by day 10 you almost certainly aren't, but a negative LFT (ie even including dead virus you still don't have enough viral load to test positive) means you're very unlikely to still be infectious.

I'm not sure some people will be able to grasp this as though.