Also add to this is that it can depend on if the RAT is being swabbed effectively - e.g. are they sticking the swab far enough up their nostril and wiping enough? Can be more likelihood for poor technique when the test is self-administered.b) there is little snot to carry the spike protein to the swab to the buffer to the well in the testkit — Jane
RATs have been designed to be as robust as possible, and they have been extremely well tested, and Medsafe have gone over all the data. If your people are following the instructions correctly, and reporting the results correctly, that is all the business is responsible for. There honestly is no need to burn through your precious and expensive tests to decide if it meets standard. They are hardly doing that in the Emergency Department, so you don't need to either.
Deciding if this person is a covid case, and needs to isolate or not, is not the job of the business. Best leave that to the health system, they have protocols to work to. Your person above is presumably in the medical system in order to have had three PCR tests already, so that is good, and they will presumably let you know if RAT testing is useful from here. — Jane
The next Saturday morning (after symptoms had subsided) I did another RAT test as it should have been the end of my isolation, and this one finally came back positive, but since I was asymptomatic, I was able to leave isolation? — Aaron Marshall
Unless since Aaron was originally symptomatic his timeframe could be consider from when he was first symptomatic... and therefore day 7 is the day he took the test...↪Aaron Marshall If I am reading your post correctly, you are a household contact of a positive case, so needed to test on day 3 and day 7 while isolating. Your viral load was high enough to be detected by RAT on your day 7 test. That would mean you need to stay in isolation, regardless of symptoms.
Your wife, however has done her 7 days isolation since testing pos, and can leave isolation so long as she has no further symptoms. — Jane
f it were me I would test again before leaving my home (only leaving once I had a negative test) - but keep monitoring for reoccurring symptoms and taken extra precautions for the next week such as face masks when in close contact with anyone else and religious hand washing / sanitising. — MattD2
(On a technicality) that is essentially the advice that the MoH / Covid-19.govt.nz website is giving:That goes against every public health measure we have in place, and I would love to know if it was a hcw who said that leaving the house straight after getting a pos rat was ok. — Jane
And given my understanding the the reporting of being a positive case is essentially automated now there would be no other advice given apart from this.Friday is your Day 0
What you need to do:
You need to self-isolate until Friday next week (Day 7).
You can leave self-isolation on Saturday next week.
What your household needs to do
The people you live with are Household Contacts. They must isolate with you until you leave self-isolation.
They must get a test this Monday (Day 3) and Friday next week (Day 7).
If their Day 7 test is negative and they have no new or worsening symptoms, your Household Contacts can leave self-isolation on Saturday next week.
If their Day 3 or Day 7 tests are positive, they need to begin 7 days of isolation as someone with COVID-19, and follow the guidance for people who are positive. — covid19.govt.nz
Because once the household case tests positive they stop being a household case and are now considered a positive case - and then you need to assess the positive case's isolation period, this being the earlier of either; the positive RAT, or becoming symptomatic. It could be reasonable to considered that the positive RAT result is due to being infected at the same time as his partner but a lag in the build up of sufficient virial load (or inaccuracy with previous RATs) resulted in negative results until this time, i.e. the onset of the symptoms relating to the positive RAT were 7 days prior to the test.Which bit of your quote above says the household contact can leave with a positive day 7 test? — Jane
Because once the household case tests positive they stop being a household case and are now considered a positive case — MattD2
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