I started feeling a bit fluy last night, I rapid tested negative then, and again this morning. I don’t quite trust the negative because I know a few people who took days to turn positive.
How long till I can trust the negative result?
Can you go get a PCR test?
\textcolor{red}{\text{Never more than you can now. The result isn't going to change.}} Oh, you’re asking about a future negative test result? Sorry, don’t know. Hope you feel better.
Nope, unavailable in my jurisdiction.
I’m very confused.
I’ve known several people who recently felt symptoms, tested negative, then tested positive a few days after initially feeling symptoms. (I wasn’t exposed to any of them)
What are you saying? That the negative current result is infallible?
Seriously? Amazon sells them by mail. You have to pay for it, but it’s available.
PCR? By mail? What?
Can you get a flu test?
They have them in the US. Not sure about Canada.
Of course, by the time you get it, send it off, and get results, you might as well just keep doing rapid tests daily until positive or you feel better.
Hm, interesting, didn’t know that was an option.
I have two lying around. I thought we were going to need them for something, and we didn’t. I’m now wondering how long until they expire. But it is feasible to just keep one around the house.
If you have symptoms I would trust the negative test
If you were exposed to someone who had COVID, I would wait three days
Canadian government says 2 tests, 72 hours apart.
This is interesting, because the rapid test I used recently said to test twice with at least 24 hours between tests but no more than 48 hours.
American COVID is pushier than polite Canadian COVID.
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I’m assuming you meant “If you don’t have symptoms”.
I do have symptoms, which is why I don’t trust the negative test.
No, the red font is supposed to be an indication of sarcasm, sorry. The negative test result was a one-time thing. You will never be able to trust that particular negative result any more than you can trust it now. Another negative test result 24 hours later should give you much a much higher confidence. Whether the relevant additional time is 12 hours, 24 hours or something else is beyond my pay grade.
FWIW, not much, when some relatives were planning to visit around Christmas, everyone was planning to test daily. Then COVID overall became more prevalent and the visit was postponed.
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Do you have any decisions to make that depend on if you are positive for COVID vs. positive for something else?
Yeah, I’ll sit in my house for a week if I’m positive.
If it’s not COVID it might be from overtraining yesterday in which case there are things I’d be willing to go out and do.
my SO had heavy symptoms for 2 days before actually testing positive. My kid had heavy symptoms for a week, never tested positive (but it’s unlikely that he didn’t have it).
Me, still feeling 100%, continue to test negative.
I’m starting to wonder what the numbers are like on these quick tests, particularly with the newer strains.
If you’re in Ontario, local pharmacies should have free test kits.