Has anyones household experience covid symptoms but not everyone testing positive?

[Meltinthemiddle]

I have friends whose household members have all come down with covid symptoms. They have tested daily and done pcr tests but not all have have them have tested positive with covid. I've been ill all this week LFTs, pcrs etc and tested negative each time. Dh has a tickly throat no other symptom and has now tested positive. It really doesn't make sense.

Are you using a flowflex?

Yes. Youngest daughter and I are positive. Eldest daughter (5yr) is full of cold and has a cough but is negative on LFTs and PCR. I think it must just be a cold.

This is happening in our household right now. MIL, FIL, Grandmother-in-law all staying with me, DH, DS4.

MIL, DS, and myself all symptomatic, but only MIL has tested positive on lateral flows and PCR. The rest of us had lateral flows (taken five days after my MIL's first positive test) and PCRs (taken four days after my MIL's first positive test) come back negative.

It's actually really frustrating--I was hoping the rest of us would come back positive too since we had to isolate anyway. At least then we wouldn't have to worry about this again for a while!

Yes flow flex and the other nose and throat ones just to make sure. I'm feel worse then dh but have to back to work soon but he gets 5 days off because he's tested positive and is absolutely fine!

Yes, 1 got it others didn't. Then couple of months later 2 got it, others didn't, Then a month later one more got it... weird.... you can catch it in supermarket but not by sharing a bed!!

Yes! DS1 tested positive last week, I tested positive on day 6. DD and DS2 both have cold symptoms, cough etc but have persistently tested negative, despite close contact. Strange!

Yes, I was worse than the other three but tested negative on Lf and PCR.
Was later confirmed by blood test.

My 8 year old has typical covid type symptoms (headache, fever, body aches, back ache) for a couple of nights. We have a lot of positive contacts at school etc. Our doc thinks it's really likely covid as he is seeing so little else and symptoms really match. Yet her tests are completely negative. I guess it could be something else... It's just so wierd as everyone around us has covid

I tested positive on D8 for my daughter. DH tested positive on D7 and DS on D5. Both DH and I had aches, headache but no temperature or positive test for the first week.

Lateral flows miss a lot of positive cases, despite what the government would have you believe.

It’s not surprising at all and I know families who have had kids with negative LFTs, sent them to school with other family members positive. And “coincidentally” kids in that class have ended up with covid.

I wonder if some of us are just rubbish at doing the tests. DH tested positive before Xmas, I had sore throat, headache aches - all the symptoms but was negative.
I am rubbish at doing the PCR tests, start gagging as soon as I pick up the swab & can’t get anywhere near a tonsil!
I did isolate just in case because I’m not convinced my testing was good enough to give a correct result

@randomsabreuse

I tested positive on D8 for my daughter. DH tested positive on D7 and DS on D5. Both DH and I had aches, headache but no temperature or positive test for the first week.

Randomsabreuse, were your symptoms at their worst at the point of testing positive? Did anyone in your household test positive after their symptoms had largely resolved?

I was feeling better then tested positive. I went for a 2 mile walk/run up a local hill the day before my positive test. Everyone else ran a temperature then tested positive pretty well at the same time.

I did finally develop a snotty nose overnight before my positive test but all the headache and muscle aches had gone and stayed away!

Yes we’ve had exactly that! One child showed symptoms and tested positive on pcr at the weekend, but has been negative on lfts right up until today, when he’s feeling totally better . And then I’ve felt rubbish all week, tested negative on lfts and on a pcr on Tuesday but am achey, scratchy throat, exhausted - all the symptoms but nothing to show for it. And no one else is showing symptoms or testing positive at all. It’s weird.

Quite possible given that other viruses are still rife.

When dp tested positive last month, I developed a hacking cough at the same sort of time, multiple lft's and pcrs negative, the cough was so bad as well, I think I caught the cough off Dd who had it in November and was covid negative at the time. I didn't test positive for another week after Dp, when I got new symptoms! So two viruses back to back for me.

Dd has covid again this week with cold symptoms. My oldest Ds has had diarrhoea, I was convinced he had it again as he spent all day on the toilet, tests negative and he's very much fine. He hasn't had a stomach bug of any kind for a long time, so assume it's just coincidence.

There is some evidence to suggest having a typical cold viruses can protect against getting covid at the same form but I'm not an expert 🤷‍♀️

Yep. My OH had covid over Christmas. He didn't have symptoms. We tested as family asked us to before going Christmas day. That went out the window. A few days after he was cleared, I had a sore throat, aches and a fever which last for around days. I did lft every day and never got a positive.