Have Covid Symptoms But Still Tested Negative?

Hi there I'm Sehar Arshad.                  

You're reading my post about covid-19 test negative.

Now for the past couple of days, one of the

 constant

 queries, we've heard from you

has been that, a lot of people are

 now testing rt PCR negative

 while they continue to have

 symptoms which

 are all of covet. 

You've written to me

 about it, I have had family members who've

 gone through this as well, so i thought

 let's make a post, where

 we try and understand firstly, why this

 is happening and

 second, if this is happening to you, your

 family or your friends, what

 is it that you can do.

 First one, rt

 PCR is still the gold standard for testing

 for covid across the country and one

 must continue to rely on it. However

 more and more data is emerging

 that

 one in five people who are testing for

 rt PCR, their

 results are coming either false positive

 or false negative. 

Why is that happening?

 

Remember that, there is

 a cocktail of new mutants which is out

 in

 every state in the country and these testing

 kits for rt PCRs were actually built

 much

 earlier, a lot of them are not updated

 to the latest variants

 in the country and thus are not catching

 on to it. 

 

There are various new kinds as well that are

 already out in the market. There

 are few states who are still using the

 old ones and that's why this is happening

 in

 particular the UK variant. 

 

The extremely

 notorious uk variant which

 is also part of the double mutation,

 they

 are in particular jumping the test. They're

 not reflecting in the test, you

 have to be careful.   

Number two reason is, there might be a possibility

 that your virus load is actually

 very low and

 that's the reason why it's not reflecting

 in your test.

 

Number three and this is the harsh reality

 of where we are living in, the

 testing load in the country is so

 huge that

 our testing quality is being compromised

 and

 that is seeing a deterioration. 

For example,

 we just reported a couple of days

 ago on,

 how a gardener in a hospital once, was asked

 to pick up samples

 from people because there was simply

 nobody else left. 

Our healthcare infrastructure is extremely

 burdened that,

 now, we are go looking into other avenues.

 There are some attempts

 to sort of and meet all these

 gaps and that is, leading to a compromised

 way of testing.

 

If you are also facing all of this, and

 you have symptoms

 for covet and symptoms which are

 emerging out of the new variants more

 and more, but

 you're still testing negative, what should

 you do?   

First up, if you have come in touch with anybody

 who's tested positive, isolate

 yourself immediately that is the key.

 Isolate

 yourself and the first thing you need

 to do is, watch out for your symptoms.

 

 

Educate yourself, keep yourself

 informed if

 you are reporting any of the symptoms despite

 testing negative.   

Stay in isolation, inform your doctor and let him

 know about your symptoms, he

 will probably 

start with your medication.  

 

Next keep a handy

oximeter, as all of us know about it. Now

 get it from a nearest pharmacy or just

 order

 online and start noting your oxygen

 levels at least twice a day. 

If at

 any time your oxygen level goes below 

94, you

 need to report your doctor, it is a matter

 of concern. 

If both these things are also fine but

 still your

 symptoms are there, you need to repeat

 your rt PCR test in

 the next three days. 

If it's still negative you have to undergo

 a CT scan. CT

 scan should be done

only at the advice of your

 doctor and

 if he says so, please go, get it done. 

Remember,

 in the second wave already, we are

 seeing the CT scan, the

 patches are seen in the lungs much earlier

 they

 are being witnessed in the first week

 

compared to the first wave. So

 those results will also come up on the

 CT scan. 

Apart from that, there is one

 more thing you can do, which is not much

 talked about, but here's a tip, you

 can also get your blood test done. 

A blood

 test, at

 times, also shows in various forms of inflammation

 in your body and gives your doctor

 a

 good idea about what's going on. There

 are two blood tests

 that you can get done. 

Please note

 that the C

-reactive protein and the D-dimer tests. Get

 these tests done, take the results

to

 your doctor and let him figure out what

 is to be done next. 

The reason why this is so important is because,

 I understand, 

we

 had people who were showing all the symptoms

 but constantly, one test after the

 other coming out negative. 

If they got serious and had to be

 taken to a hospital no

 hospital would admit them because they

 don't have a rt-PCR positive. So this

 is some information, I hope, will come

 handy to you like i said.

Still rt PCR is the best way to go, so

 you have to repeat those tests but also

 watch out for symptoms, that is

 the key. So keep that in mind,I hope this

 was helpful. We'll see

 you again in the next post.

          

    Bye for now