Yep mine was one of those post in ones - ordered on the Monday, arrived Tuesday and sent Tuesday before 1pm. Results by Friday and this was just after Xmas IIRC. And I was negative
I've had several 'Do it Yourself' Lateral Flow Tests, involving pushing a long stick down your own throat, and up your own nose, which provides a Yes/No result in 30 minutes. I suspect that you are not referring to this, though. Do you mean the PCR test? If so, I have no specific knowledge about the timescale for getting a result.
It was the swap down the throat and up the nose , but it was at a walk in centre . They say up to 3 days and sometimes 6 . I was just wondering if any one had different experience .
Just to prove that my knowledge is almost non-existent, I looked up 'PCR Test' and the method of testing for both Lateral Flow Testing and PCR Testing is the same - Swab on a long stick, in the mouth and up the nose. I foolishly assumed that the PCR tests were using a different approach (blood sample?), but it would appear that the means of obtaining a sample is the same for both procedures, it's (probably) the subsequent sample processing that is different. Every day's a school day...
Longest wait I had was 3 days, but the last couple have been within 24 hours, the fastest of which was only 10 hours later (appointment at midday and results at around 10pm). That was from the drive-in test centre at Parkway. Fortunately I have not tested positive in any instance either! Hope you don’t have to wait too much longer as having to self-isolate isn’t fun when you’re caught on the back foot with it.
Thanks . Mine was at 8am this morning at a walk in centre in Ringwood . Glad your tests were negative
The lateral flow test, often abbreviated to LFT, is based on the various proteins in the sample being carried by a buffer solution migrating through a medium until they reach a point coated in antibodies to SARS-Cov-2. If virus is present in the sample, it will combine with the antibodies and form a line on the paper strip. PCR, or Polymerase Chain Reaction, involves essentially cloning any virus present in the sample tens of billions of times, in order to make enough virus to detect. It is therefore a lot more sensitive than the LFT, and can thus detect infection much earlier.
Quote staggered by the new infection rates quoted yesterday. The numbers seemed to shoot up. i would have liked to have known some demographic information regarding this. At the moment, there is a lot of conjecture. It will be interesting to see when the next lockdown comes in to effect. With so many people vaccinated now, I can see a situation where the lockdowns are implemented not simply to protect people as much as to stopping giving the virus the chance to mutate, I can envisage the virus running rampant in the general population but with fewer hospital admissions and deaths yet the potential set up for the Indian variant to mutate in to something worse. The govt will be wise to hold the reins on the easing of restrictions. I am not convinced Boris won't make the same errors made before Christmas insofar as any measures taken will come too late. With the weather currently being atrocious, I would like to see a short, sharp lockdown to nip this in the bud and open up to the 18th May measures in the second week in June. I just fear that Boris will get it wrong again.
Yes the UK can stop a virus mutating that is running free among billions of unvaccinated people worldwide...
They're barely up week on week. (0.2% increase) Right now, it's really not worth worrying about. The levels are pretty steady. Here's a word of advice - don't compare the statistics day to day, compare it week on week. And right now, it's not concerning.
As we learn to treat this disease and we vaccinate against it it is important to start understanding this is the new flu. Just as diseases sometimes fade away, new ones appear. The flu mutates all the time and it is a nasty little bitch of an illness. That means we have to learn to live with it. It will not now be eradicated and telling people to stay locked up to prevent mutation is a nonsense. We can lock the UK down and then maybe that happens, but does anyone want that? We need to change the language from one of fear to one of hope and start moving forward. Somehow Earth's population managed to double from 2 to 4 billion between 1927 and 1974, yet now goes up a billion every 13 years. We are ON TOP OF DEATH to a terrifying extent. The growth of the human population is the world's most terrifying disease. We cull animals with this growth level for their own good. Humanity is going to have to weigh the 'life is sacrosanct' idea against other needs over the next 100 years. I am in a position most would call immoral right now. I don't value human life of all equally. Sorry, but my son's life means more than mine. My generation and the generations that preceded it have ****ed the planet and now we put the lives of young people second to our own. I am no fan of China, but even they vaccinated the young first. What do we do? Protect the elderly and screw the young over. Make poor people pay to go on holiday for a test they get free if they want to go to work. It is about time we started saying 'gtf on with it'.
But a chair, sunlight, flowers: these are not to be dismissed. I am alive, I live, I breathe, I put my hand out, unfolded, into the sunlight. Where I am is not a prison but a privilege, as Aunt Lydia said, who was in love with either/or.
I don't think there will be another lockdown. I think we may restrict international travel (IMHO we should block it for the next few months to get ahead), but no real lockdowns. If we continue with the high take up of vaccinations then the virus won't mutate as badly here as there will be no one to transmit it to. I say no-one, but obviously I mean the vaccinations reduce significantly the amount of people that get it. Significantly. They also reduce the chance of hospitalisation significantly if you are unlucky enough to get it. The various variants may make their way back here, but as someone else said about the flu - **** happens and we adapt the jab that we will be having at least initially twice a year. I strongly believe that we are over the worst. To look at the situation, you have to remove the political agenda from your thinking. Boris is a liar, a cheat, a charlatan etc, but the UK govt are handing the current passage of the virus better than most. To admit to that doesn't make you a Tory or even make you a government lover. It just is as it is. What went before is another matter. IMHO of course
