Repeated covid-19 or false positive?

[allthatIcando]

Hello

My daughter had COVID-19 in Jan. She has done a lateral flow test this morning because she was complaining of feeling sick, no specific COVID symptoms. There is a very faint grey "ghost" line, not red, that appeared within 30 minutes. Who thinks:

1. this is a positive
2. sticking picking up faint bits of virus from Jan?

I have not sent her to school and was going to repeat in a bit

It’s a positive.

If it was a faint grey then it could just be an evap line?
I would test again in the morning.

You wouldn’t expect a lateral flow test to be positive still, especially if she had negatives after having it before. The advice not to do a lft for 90 days after covid got dropped.

DH has always had faint positives on the original NHS LFTs (not on Flowflex or OG). PCRs always confirmed negative. Now he's actually positive they're proper big black stripes though.

Unless your DD has a record of testing positive when she's not, I'd accept this as a true positive.

Thanks.

When she was recovering from COVID-19 in January she did get a faint line first thing in the morning some days on both NHS LFTs and Flowflex. I used the NHS ones today. Later in the day this faint line was gone. I was never sure what that meant expect maybe still having the virus at a very low level. I suppose I could try to get her a PCR to check.

I'd try another test.

Ugh! I repeated and got the same really faint grey line. That did not help much

Are they flowflex? My DS has had faint grey lines on those ( not all the time but often enough they couldn't all be real). Even at day 7 his real positive has some red in. Normally I'd say get a PCR to check but if she had it on January it may well come back positive anyway, do you have another brand of LFT?

Also if she's actually been sick that may affect it as vomit is quite acidic.

No, they are the original NHS ones. I think I have some flowflex too so will try that..

Having the same issue. 2nd round of covid January. Tested positive with a really giant grey line yesterday.
Done some reading up. It can be dormant old cells that can reactivate but isn't actually covid , just shared the same symptoms.
I have had covid patients coughing all over me for the past 2 weeks so who knows

Having just had similar, and a host of reasons to believe it could not possibly be a real positive, PCR confirmed it was indeed positive. Sorry OP. My sad, bored 10 yr old is about to do some reluctant baking. Lockdown flashbacks!

Faint not giant 🙄

.

In my DS school we have been told there are some children that have it now for a second time since Jan.

I'm taking her for a PCR so will update later

Several of dcs friends are on their second round within a couple of months.

The PCR was positive. I am still confused whether this is really a new case of COVID-19 or whether she is still just testing positive from the one in January.

Did she end isolation early in January after testing negative on two consecutive days? If so, it's a new infection. If not, it may or may not be - not sure how you would he able to tell.

I'd be keeping an eye on others in the house to see if they test positive now. If they do, that would be further suggestion of a new infection.

She has symptoms
She has a positive lft
She has a positive pcr

How much more evidence do you need? She has covid.

Either she has covid.

Or she has all the symptoms of covid from another virus, and coincidentally has tested positive due to old virus remnants.

Which is possible of course. But I promise you, as someone who works in a high school, getting it again within 2 months isn't unusual at the moment.

DS2 had a mild dose at Christmas when I did. Had clear positives with general cold symptoms last week.
DH has gone down with it despite dodging it at Christmas.
I know a few others who've also had it at Christmas and recently.