False negative or coincidence?

[NinjaQueen]

My DD tested positive for covid on Tuesday, her symptoms are headache and sore throat. I have since yesterday had a classic cold with headache, sniffles and sore throat. Coming up negative on LFT.

I am worried about going to work tomorrow as I share an office with an older lady who hasn't yet had it.

Is it common to have a false negative or is it a coincidence I have a cold at the same time.

Could have a cold or it could be that lft's aren't picking up. If it it was me I would have for a pcr.

When Dp had covid and I evidently caught it, it took days after me having symptoms to show up on test - even on pcr!

I would get a pcr if I was you!

Are you doing the nose only swabs?

If so, try doing your throat first.

Are they even offering PCR tests now with isolation being dropped next week?

Yes just doing Bose swabs, I will try a throat one, good idea.

Yea I knew I’d got it from my daughter before it showed up positive, was very much symptomatic all day but didn’t test positive til this 10pm

I had symptoms for a good 48 hours before my LFT turned positive. I knew I had it though. Keep doing them.

Seems the symptoms need to be quite evident to get a positive on LFT. My dd has it for second time but was testing negative even though she was struggling with gunk in her throat and had a temperature for a couple of days. The rest of us are hoping the vaccine does it’s job!

Really worried about brushing it off as a cold and taking it into work. Think I will ask my manager if I can WFH just to be on the safe side.

False negatives are v common on LFTs, yes.

I have COVID confirmed with a PCR. I've tested negative every day on LFT. So based on my experience, false negatives are definitely common.

@JanglyBeads

False negatives are v common on LFTs, yes.

That's not actually true, it's false positives that are very rare.

False negatives on LFT are common. There are loads of accounts of it.

False negatives are possible but I did manage to get a cold at the same time DD had Covid ( at least I'm assuming it was a cold as PCR was negative as well as 11 days of LFTs).

A false negative is likely to be poor technique.
From one of many soursces:
"This means that if you get two red lines on your lateral flow test, you’re almost certainly positive for Covid-19. In those who did not have Covid-19, the lateral flow tests correctly gave a negative result to 99.5% of people with symptoms and to 98.9% of people without symptoms."
We have had what I believe to be false negatives here but I suspect technique was lacking.

I took 2.5 days for a very faint positive to appear on my LFTs. I had to do two others over the next 24 hours before a bright red line appeared. As said before swab your throat as well, I read Omicron can often be picked up in the throat first.