I don’t know f I was given false information or if I somehow heard it wrong although I am reasonably sure I heard it right. I was tested for the virus a few weeks ago. For about 10 days I had a strange tightness in my chest I had never experienced before along with shortness of breath and terrible itching all over my body. The chest tightness had eased up but the itching continued and by about day 14 I started running a fever and that is when I decided to get tested. My test came back negative but the person calling me with my test results said that based on my symptoms I probably had it. She said we can often test negative 7 days after the onset of symptoms even though some of the symptoms may persist. I did have a fever when tested and I was not able to cough up anything from my lungs for the sample. The best I got was a little mucous from my throat area. I find it hard to believe that I could test negative 7 days after onset of symptoms??
About the itching, I was told by a Dr, friend that the itching may have been caused by an immune response. It started on my chest area for a few days and then seem to spread from there to all parts of my body including face and head but no rashes were present. Itching is almost gone now and what appears to be minor rashes are appearing on my feet and parts of my legs.
I don’t know what the numbers are on this[sup]*[/sup], but it seems like the PCR test for COVID has a pretty high false-negative rate. I’ve heard several other anecdotes of, “had all the symptoms sometime in March-April, tested, came back negative.” At this point, I wouldn’t put much stock in a negative PCR test, or a positive antibody test, FWIW.
[sup]*[/sup]According to this, it’s 20% on day 8, which is pretty much as low as it gets - it starts to rise again on day 9.
ETA: And I think that 20% is assuming they got a good sample, which it’s certainly possible they did not. Human error with gathering samples would almost certainly lead to a higher false-negative rate in the real world.
When my daughter had all the symptoms you’d expect, she got tested and came back negative. She was told there’s about a 30% chance of a false negative, so she should assume she had it.
Weeks later, she went for the antibody test and again came back negative. That test also has a chance for false negative.
Her symptoms were high fever and difficulty breathing, no congestion. Her boyfriend had a fever and GI symptoms.
So, maybe they had it, maybe they didn’t.
You should assume you have it and quarantine yourself for at least two weeks.