Still positive after 21 days, wtf?

July 21, 2022 11:14 AM

I had COVID, June 30th was day 0, and I would describe my symptoms as mild-medium miserable. I was prescribed and took the Paxlovid treatment. I have only a lingering light dry cough, and have been fever-free for 9 days. I'm still testing positive on the home rapid antigen tests (I've tried 3 different manufacturers product) and I'm still mostly isolating because there's no guidance that I can find online about what happens after day 10. Am I still spewing plague or what?

Additional context: I've had 3 Moderna shots. I was due for my 2nd booster the same week I got sick. The person I got it from had symptoms for 4 days, and tested positive until day 11. I returned to work masked this past Monday, and and still avoiding public spaces as much as possible.
Before the pandemic I was living split time with my dad and my partner, and moved full-time in with my partner to protect my very healthy but still elderly father because my partner and I were deemed workers in essential businesses and couldn't work from home. Upon testing positive I moved into the granny flat rear house at my dad's, which is when I remain today. Both of them have tested negative every day since.

All the information I can find online is basically 'if you have no fever and improving symptoms, you can stop isolating after day 10 with a good mask'. Most studies concluded that the majority of people antigen test negative by day 14 and that you can test positive on a PCR for weeks after but what if you're still testing positive on rapid antigen tests? I've already run through my stock of free tests, and scavenged as many as my local pharmacy and Kaiser office will give me.

At this point it feels like I'm wasting a needed resource but how am I supposed to know when I'm not contagious? Has this happened to anyone else?

posted by ApathyGirl to Health & Fitness (11 answers total)

Has this happened to anyone else?

I was positive for 23 days and continued coughing 12 days after my first negative test.
posted by dobbs at 11:30 AM on July 21, 2022

Paxlovid rebound is a thing, but it should have significantly less severe effects. After completing treatment, you may have an re-occurrence of symptoms, and it is recommended that you isolate again.
posted by meowzilla at 11:34 AM on July 21, 2022 [2 favorites]

Yes - seconding that I know people who had this (testing antigen positive for a long time) both with Paxlovid rebound and even a few who never took Paxlovid. They did all eventually test negative, it just took a longer time.
posted by LobsterMitten at 12:40 PM on July 21, 2022 [1 favorite]

I should clarify that I did not have Paxlovid.
posted by dobbs at 12:54 PM on July 21, 2022 [1 favorite]

I also tested positive for quite a while.

First positive test on March 16, and I was sweating out a May 1 travel date to a place with strict entry guidelines. I only got a negative test like a week before we left.
posted by wenestvedt at 12:58 PM on July 21, 2022

My day 0 was June 20th. Vaxxed and 1x boosted with Pfizer. Pretty yuck week, took Paxlovid. I took a rapid antigen test on day 7 and was still positive. I called my doctor's office and asked for further advice -- she said I could still be testing positive for another 3 months, and to follow the CDC guidelines (5 days isolation plus 5 days masking). I haven't taken a test again since. Didn't get anyone I regularly spend time around sick since emerging from isolation. Edit to add: I was fever free after day 4.
posted by sk932 at 12:59 PM on July 21, 2022 [2 favorites]

Anecdata, but when my family all had Covid back in January, my son was testing positive long after the rest of us. His pediatrician said that he could still test positive for up to 90 days, so we should follow the protocols of counting from exposure + symptoms and not wait for the test.
posted by Mchelly at 1:35 PM on July 21, 2022

A Microbiologist at NYU answered just this question - "If you are testing antigen positive, you should assume a low level of virus infection," Benjamin tenOever, Ph.D. said. "You are possibly transmissible."
posted by arnicae at 1:46 PM on July 21, 2022 [6 favorites]

People need to make clear which test they are using when discussing results.
posted by oneirodynia at 2:09 PM on July 21, 2022 [2 favorites]

er... didn't mean to post before adding this:

PCR tests are sensitive enough to detect virus even when a person does not have enough viral load to be contagious. So specifying which test makes it more clear if one is an outlier continuing to test positive on the less sensitive antigen tests, or the more sensitive PCR test (which is much more common). Antigen test positivity correlates very closely with contagiousness.
posted by oneirodynia at 3:04 PM on July 21, 2022 [6 favorites]

Antigen tests are infectiousness tests. If you’re testing positive on antigen test, assume you’re infectious.
posted by shadygrove at 5:34 PM on July 21, 2022 [1 favorite]