Do I need a PCR?

[optionsgalore]

I started with a cough and sore throat on Wednesday last week but was getting negative lateral flows- I’ve just had a very faint positive lateral flow but I feel fine. I’m obviously staying away from everyone and won’t be going out but do I need to have a PCR now given I don’t have symptoms? And would I just keep doing lateral flows daily until I get two negatives?

A positive LFT no matter how faint would be proof enough of Covid. So a confirmatory PCR is no longer required.

The only reason you may need a PCR would be for travel reasons, however I don’t really know if this is still the case or what the rules are.

Nope, no need to confirm a positive with a PCR, just do your lfts on days 5&6 as per guidance.

Hope you stay well.

Ah thank you very much- will keep on with the daily LFTs.

I didn’t get a positive lft until day 4 of symptoms, but presumed I had covid as 3 other family members tested positive, but didn’t bother testing every day as we didn’t have enough tests for all of us, so we only tested again a couple of times. In fact we all ended up isolating for the full 10 days since symptoms began.