slicktony

i wouldn’t pretend to have any special insight, but given the number of Brits in Germany and Germans in the UK, I’d hope they’d make their minds up by Sunday evening.

Dan1113

Sooner, to be honest...

13901

If you look at gov.uk’s dashboard the numbers are kind of stable for hospitalisations and so on, but if people test positive and need to self isolate then it’s going to cause problems to the economy. If you cast your mind back to before Covid, everyone had the sniffles and went to work. This is of course different.

Maybe a mask mandate with a bit more oomph to that and the end to the legalised fraud that is the self declared exemption would be useful.

Dan1113

My Christmas plans have just become much more complicated.

My boss, whom I had meetings with Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, has tested positive. She was sick all week but had a daily negative LFD. She booked a PCR on Thursday despite it just being normal cold symptoms and not "the three" and it's positive.

I am due to fly on Wednesday and I have multiple tests during the travels, plus Christmas with someone very vulnerable on Friday, so can't afford to quarantine abroad nor get him sick - he wouldn't survive it.

I was masked and 2m away for each meeting those 3 days, but they were about an hour each day. On Thursday just before she decided to leave I was close to her but only a few minutes. My booster was two weeks ago tomorrow. So I hope that somehow I will be ok, especially since I've been lightly dosing on covid from contacts for several months now, but I'm not feeling too optimistic. I wasn't contact traced but can't afford to travel and be positive. (Though the whole trip is non refundable so it'd all be a disaster.)

I've done 6 (!) LFDs since last night and so far, all negative. But I guess my riskiest meeting was when she was the most ill most recently, Wednesday evening, and the five minutes on Thursday.

Hoping my booster will keep the infection away but her false LFD negatives make me nervous. Hopefully my PCR test today is negative but not sure if a negative PCR now should reassure me since I did see her on Monday and Tuesday and she was already sick by then, or if I should go ahead with my PCRs tomorrow and Monday to be more sure because of my contacts on Wednesday etc? If I caught it during the week, would I already be showing it now?

Any thoughts at all would be greatly welcome...

lhrsfo

There do seem to be credible reports that this variant incubates faster and is over faster. Nothing is proven yet but that coincides with our neighbour (aged 70) who only had symptoms on one day and didn’t get a positive test until the day after.

I am afraid the only options are either to rely on the PCR or not to go. It’s the latter for us - we’ve just been uninvited for Christmas because we live in London and are therefore too dangerous.

Ardecos

You might be lucky. My wife was pinged earlier in the week and did a LFT that was negative. Due to the ping she also did an NHS test and that came back positive this morning. She does have some quite mild cold symptoms. I have now done an NHS test but no result yet. However, I was supposed to be flying to Zurich tomorrow and although I have now had to cancel that, the fit to fly PCR test I did yesterday has just come back and it is negative. I am double-vaccinated and had my booster at the start of December.

Internaut

It really is looking like a double whammy. Hopefully the data will bear out the mooted shorter gestation and infection period in the next week or so. If the quarantine period can be reduced from ten days to seven, that will relieve some pressure.

Dan1113

All these negative LFD results make me uncomfortable!

Silver Fox

So stop doing them then! Definition of insanity and all that!

squawk

Ouch, sorry to hear this. To me this would be about risk mitigation: if I were in your shoes, I would do an LFT once or perhaps twice a day (first thing, and before dinner?) - any more than that seems like a waste of them tbh.

I would also leave it as long as possible to make a decision about whether to fly or not - decide on Tuesday if possible.

I don't know if you already have to take a PCR for your destination, but even if not strictly necessary it might be an idea even if you're asymptomatic, again leaving it as late as possible. By Tuesday, if you can get a same-day one, that's almost a full week since you were last exposed (to your boss, at least). You might possibly still develop symptoms, but I would imagine the odds are much more in your favour by that point...

Good luck!

slicktony

This strikes me as good advice. I read the other day (sorry, can’t find the source) that it takes on average 4 or 5 days from exposure for symptoms to appear. I think I would feel quite comfortable seven days after a known exposure, but obviously, everyone’s situation and risk tolerance is different. I hope things work out for you.

nk15

In our place, the rule is "Any individual with a direct exposure must be tested 3-5 days following exposure" in order to return in person (they need a PCR). So, you basically need a negative PCR 3-5 days from your last known exposure. For you that was Thursday. If I were you, I would do one PCR Monday and one Tuesday (day 5 from your last exposure), or just one of the two. Here is the CDC page about it, they say testing 5-7 days from exposure.
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019...isolation.html
I think with 1-2 negative PCRs, especially one on Tuesday, you might be ok to go, and assuming you feel fine (no symptoms).

Dan1113

I'll go ahead with my PCR tomorrow and Monday and hope I stay negative. So far still nothing with the LFD.

DaveS

In the morning you can tell us how many LFDs it takes before having to go to A&E

Internaut

Should be fine as long as you don’t swallow them.