Testing positive on day 8 after testing negative on day 5 and 6!!

[FiFTM]

Hi,

So I have had COVID for eight days now, and I tested negative on LFTs on days 5 and 6. I did a test today, day 8, before a dental appointment and it's cone up positive!! I tested again to be sure and it was again positive, has this happened to anyone else?? I'm very confused, do I need to start isolating again?

This is a great example of why not to keep testing constantly.

Why would you test again after testing negative?

I had contacted the dentist yesterday to see if they were ok for me to attend given the situation, and they asked me to test before coming in

Had you eaten or drank just before today's tests? That can affect the results. Although I'm guessing you probably only swabbed your nose?

Maybe ring 119 for advice?

Oh I I'll give 119 a call, I've been googling away here without success, never thought of ringing them, thanks!!

I'd be interested to hear what 119 say about this. We've had nearly this situation with a colleague today (asked to test for a medical appointment) but they are day 7 after testing neg day 5&6 and now they're not sure if they should be isolating still. I can understand not testing again for 90 days (without symptoms) if you've done your 10 days isolation because some people continue to test positive. But testing negative and then positive within a day seems odd. Contagious or not?

I know they say not to test using a PCR for 90 days as it can still detect remnants of the infection long after it's gone but it shouldn't be the same for the LFT tests!

Exactly the same thing happened to me recently. Tested negative on days 4 5 6 then did a test before I planned going swimming on day 8 which was positive. I am now on day 11 and still testing positive on flowflex and negative on the old style throat and nose LFTs. I did one of each at the same time as an experiment.

So I rang 119, the advice is a bit bizarre! She said they advise not to test again after two negative tests on day 5 and 6 because this kind of thing can happen... I probably am not contagious bit I should continue to isolate and test for another two days, but I'll be finished isolating on day ten anyways so it's not necessary. But she said not to test after day 10 because I might still test positive and then that would be counted as a new infection!! No explanation as to why I might test negative and then positive... I'm going to stay in anyways til Saturday to be safe but it's all v strange! I tested my throat separately and it was negative, my nose was a bit streamy this morning so I was wondering was there just a lot of residual infection debris coming out that maybe caused it?? I guess I'll never know! But yeah basically if you get two negative tests DON'T TEST AGAIN!!

I do think it depends where you test and where the virus is...

My DS tested positive earlier in the week. Today I tested twice, once both nose and throat, once just throat. The nose and throat one came up with the faintest line ever.. The throat only was a blazing red line!

I have a sore throat and no hint of nasal symptoms so can only assume that that is where the virus is residing and that the nose mucus on top masked/diluted the virus..