Tested positive 8 days after symptoms started

[CantStartaFireWithoutaSpark]

Hi there,
Last Saturday, 7 days ago DH tested positive. He had mild symptoms, which progressed to a head cold and all the usual omicron symptoms. Only today (Saturday) has his first negative showed up.
8 days ago, on the Friday, I started having symptoms, nausea, headaches, head cold, during the week a mild cough developed and a runny nose. I tested negative every single day.
DS had a temperature last Friday night, head cold developed by Sunday, runny nose etc, which he still has. He has tested negative every single day for 7 days.
Today both DD and I have tested positive. 8 days after initial symptoms.
We’ve been isolating all week, under the assumption we had it, but, now the test has just come up positive for both of us, do we need to start our isolation again?
I’m devastated, I start a new job this Week, I thought I was out of the worst of it.
New job is WFH, but DS needs to go to nursery

DS not DD

Did you never do a PCR test or were they all LFT? PCR can pick up covid at an earlier stage than LFT. If you have symptoms its a PCR you should take.

If you were doing a PCR everyday and it was coming back negative then you didn't have it but you do now. So yes isolation starts now

No we did LFTs and isolated.
Hindsight yes we should have done PCRs. 😩

If either of you had a temperature or a cough you had symptoms and should have taken a PCR test. Lateral flows are for the asymptomatic. LFT’s are known to be less reliable when used with symptoms.

If it was LFT tests you were doing then they don't always pick up covid so a negative can't be trusted to rule out infection. This is why if you have symptoms you should take a PCR test

So, yes I should have done PCR. But I haven’t. I can’t change that now. We are all getting better now. So I don’t understand this.

Your 10 day isolation starts when your symptoms start. Doesn't matter that you have only just tested positive. You count day 1 as first day of symptoms.

@Iwantroplayanothergame

If either of you had a temperature or a cough you had symptoms and should have taken a PCR test. Lateral flows are for the asymptomatic. LFT’s are known to be less reliable when used with symptoms.

They are actually more reliable when you have symptoms but a negative on an LFT can't be used to rule out covid if you do have symptoms

@CantStartaFireWithoutaSpark

No we did LFTs and isolated. Hindsight yes we should have done PCRs. 😩

That's your problem then. You have know way of knowing when it would have been positive if you had done a PCR like your supposed to. So yes you will have to isolate from now as that's your first positive test. You have no way of knowing if you were positive last weekend and still are now or if you had something else that presented similar before and now have covid.

It means you're almost out of isolation as your symptoms started over a week ago.

As DH had it, I just assumed we did too, which is likely we did. We had symptoms before him. We would have needed to get public transport to get a test, so… for us, we just took the LFT as word and isolated.

You could have ordered home tests. They arrive the next day

The symptoms could have been something else though.

Shoulda woulda coulda! Not very helpful.

So, does my isolation start from the day my symptoms showed? Or from the day i got a positive LFT?
We are feeling better.

I don't understand why everyone is being so harsh. I'm sure in hindsight she would have done a PCR. I think lateral flows are quite sensitive for more people, mine picked it up on the first day of symptoms and I'd been testing before that. I think it's 99.9% likely the symptoms were Covid related if the husband had it.

*Most people

Who knows?!
Maybe test and trace will give you some dates to work with

@CantStartaFireWithoutaSpark

Shoulda woulda coulda! Not very helpful.

So, does my isolation start from the day my symptoms showed? Or from the day i got a positive LFT?
We are feeling better.

I would call 119 and ask for advice. Problem is yes technically it's from the day your symptoms started but that's assuming your waiting for PCR results in that time for a PCR taken on day 1 or 2 of symptoms not that your talking about a positive a week later! I think people (including me) are coming across as harsh as we are frustrated that nearly 2 years into this and some people still don't seem to understand the rules on testing.

Look, you could get a postal PCR now but what's the point? You clearly have covid and have had it for eight days!! Rules are if you get a positive PCR then you isolate for 10 days from the day your symptoms started You have just cut out the middle man.

You are on day 8, you have 2 days to go.

you are in touching distance of freedom Day.

I thought they weren’t doing PCR’s as standard at the moment??

@Cuwins I do understand. But the rules have also recently changed.
I just can’t quite believe they’ve shown up positive today after consistent negatives.
DH had consistent positives until today.
Being harsh is just unnecessary.

I’ve been isolating like I was supposed to.
I didn’t get public transport to the test centre, because I’m conscientious of others as I was pretty certain we had it.

People are being harsh here, I've just had a very similar experience with no family. Dd1 caught covid from school. Woke with a high temp and headache, we did lfts for the whole family (because my vunerable parents were staying so wanted an immediate answer). Dd1 tested positive everyone else was clear. Later that day dd2 started with the same symptoms. I assumed she had covid so kept her home and ordered PCR tests. They came back showing DD1 and DD3 had covid but not dd2! I did not understand that as dd2 clearly had symptoms. It took till day 6 for dd2 to finally test positive for covid, she hasn't shown any symptoms since testing positive. I don't know when she should come out of isolation. I feel like the tests just didn't work till later in the virus for her. Maybe if we could have done throat swabs it'd have been more reliable. But one thing to take away is I'm not sure thar PCRs are all that anyway so don't feel bad you didn't do one!

@ElinorOliphant

I thought they weren’t doing PCR’s as standard at the moment??

They are if you have symptoms If you don't have symptoms and get a positive LFT then you don't need a follow up PCR

@ElinorOliphant

I thought they weren’t doing PCR’s as standard at the moment??

If you have positive LFT and no symptoms, no need to PCR.

Otherwise do PCR.

It's always as clear as mud and ever changing so it's no wonder people interpret differently.