Tests additionally differ of their sensitivity, and other people differ in how they carry out them. “Some people do a swab test and it’s like they barely touch their nose,” Dr. Gordon stated. “Whereas with other individuals — actually, with a family member recently, I had to be like, ‘Don’t hurt yourself,’ because they were really, really getting in there.”
What to do
One lesson is that extended optimistic outcomes are widespread sufficient that individuals who go away isolation earlier than Day 10 ought to proceed to take precautions, resembling sporting a well-fitting masks, consultants stated.
Beyond that, scientists disagreed. Some advisable that folks isolate till they check antigen-negative, even when it takes greater than 10 days.
“We can now tailor recommendations to individual experiences using the rapid test results to guide us,” Dr. Grad stated. “And since we know that some people can have prolonged courses, it seems reasonable to me that if you are able to continue isolating if positive, you should do so.”
But a number of others stated that, as a matter of public well being coverage, it doesn’t make sense to ask most in any other case wholesome folks to isolate, and even maintain testing, for greater than 10 days.
“Nobody’s saying that there aren’t some people, maybe statistically speaking at the end of the tail, who might transmit after Day 10,” Dr. Chin-Hong stated. But folks at that stage of an infection wouldn’t be prone to play a big position in spreading the virus, and continued testing might maintain many individuals out of labor or college with out a lot public well being profit, he stated. “And also you raise an equity issue,” he added, “like, ‘Who on Earth can have enough tests?’”
Even then, consultants say, there are some circumstances wherein folks ought to proceed to check and doubtlessly isolate past Day 10. They embody folks whose signs usually are not enhancing and people who are immunocompromised, as they could shed infectious virus for longer durations of time. (The C.D.C. recommends that folks with weakened immune programs isolate for as much as 20 days.)