My question is in regards to Covid 19. I'm just curious regarding the timeline of my Covid positive result. Thursday evening- started feeling off (headache, sore throat) decided to take a test, it was negative. Friday morning- symptoms had definitely changed, started running fever (body aches, chills, fever) tested again Friday afternoon, still negative. Fever, chills, body aches continued all day Friday and into the early morning Saturday. Saturday- feeling much better Saturday mid morning. Saturday afternoon I decided to test again, this time it was positive but the line was barely detectable. Slightly confusing testing positive considering I feel like I'm on the backside of this but now I know it's Covid. So I continue to rest, drink, isolate. Sunday - no fever, chills or headache, just a little tired and yucky taste in mouth. Monday- feeling better than previous day, still no fever since early Saturday morning. Monday afternoon I took my fourth Covid test and it is more positive than the control line. My question is, I tested negative twice when I was at the height of my symptoms, and now my symptoms have subsided, other than slight fatigue and I'm a strongly positive, why?
This is presumably an Omicron infection. We have seen that testing positivity or shedding of virus does not always coincide with the symptoms. So the peak of your symptoms preceding the peak of your testing positive did not occur on the same day. Also, when a test is “negative” it might not be high enough to trigger the test to turn positive but you may be shedding sufficient virus to be infectious to another person. All of this suggests that we need to continue to maintain caution in public and to quarantine if we have symptoms or to mask when out in public.