Covid but negative LFT?

[IVFNewbie]

Hi! I have had COVID symptoms, (with added extra diarrhoea it seems) for 4 days now but all the LFTs I have done have been negative (I've done 3- one each day). Could it still be COVID or is it something else?

Anyone have any experiences?

No-one seems to know what the false negative rate is for LFTs against current variants.

Also, current disease patterns is also leading to oodles of reports that people don't test positive until day 3 or 4

Diarrhoea is a covid symptom (and has been right since original strain)

If you have tested positive, current guidance is that you should stay home for 5 days unless absolutely essential you go out (in which case you need to take precautions such as social distancing especially indoors, masking, and keeping away from vulnerable people (and you can't tell by looking, so that has to mean everyone except those you know to be in normal health)

If it's not tested, you should still keep symptomatic diseases away from others as far as possible (at home if you reasonable can, distance and mask when you're out and about)

The symptoms of Covid could also be flu or a virus. You can get diarrhoea with them both too.

As previous poster mentioned, many aren't getting a positive till at least day 4 of symptoms.

In the last UKHSA respiratory virus report I read from mid September, COVID positivity rate was 10% and flu was 0.8% so unlikely to be flu at this time of year. @DustyLee123

Get well soon, rest lots and please stay away from others for as long as possible as if it is COVID most people exhale virus for at least 8 days.

Other germs are available that cause the same symptoms.