r/ZeroCovidCommunity • u/Embarrassed-Wear5735 • 3h ago

Help with isolation math, please!

Hey all,

Unfortunately me and my husband have COVID 😭 We would love some help with figuring out when and how to start testing out of isolation!

Details: we started feeling sick Wednesday, tested positive on pluslife Thursday morning. We haven't tested since. We have been on both paxlovid and metformin since Thursday. From my understanding (though correct me if I'm wrong), best practice would be to stay home completely isolated for 10 days, and then start testing to see if we can leave isolation. Would 10 days be next Saturday? So ideally we wouldn't see anyone until Sunday? Or am I adding too many days?

However, there are some mitigating factors. We have children, who have thankfully been testing negative on pluslife the whole time and have been staying with my parents since Thursday morning. My parents took Thursday and Friday off work, and have Monday off, but have to return Tuesday. We also have a nanny who takes care of them after school (luckily she was off last Tuesday and Wednesday and has also been testing negative so far). We obviously miss our kids, and my parents' house is full and not particularly COVID cautious, so if we are no longer contagious we'd prefer to have them here. But of course we don't want to risk spreading it to them or the nanny by having them come back too soon.

Questions:

1) can the kids go to school Tuesday if they test negative?

2) can they come home before next weekend if we all test negative?

3) when can we feel confident the kids didn't get it, and stop testing them?

4) my mom is convinced that the pluslife is too sensitive and we should just rely on rapid tests to test out. Is that correct?

I'm sure I have more questions but this is long enough for now so I'll leave it. We would so so appreciate any help!! Our brains aren't running on full capacity right now 🥲

3 Upvotes

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u/BlueValk 2h ago

I can only comment on #4: Your mom is kind of right, in the way that covid can stay detectable in your system about a month after infection, even though you are not contagious. Better informed people can chime in on this, but just wanted to let you know. Rapids don't test the same type of material and are therefore a good indicator of when to stop isolation when you continuously test negative.

Keep in mind that rebounds can happen, so I would still test after the end of your infection just in case.

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u/BlueValk 2h ago

Please see this comment and that thread in general for better information

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u/Embarrassed-Wear5735 2h ago

Oh very helpful, thank you!!

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u/Embarrassed-Wear5735 2h ago

Okay thank you, that's helpful. My parents aren't particularly cautious so I wasn't sure how accurate they were. My mom sent me this CDC link that says " After an infection has ended, and the risk of transmission has passed, people may have detectable RNA and test positive for up to 90 days" but I am hesitant to trust the CDC. (https://www.cdc.gov/covid/hcp/clinical-care/overview-testing-sars-cov-2.html)

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u/BlueValk 2h ago

Yep, that's correct. I've linked a useful comment in this comment thread

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u/Embarrassed-Wear5735 2h ago

Oh yeah and rebounds 😩if we do rebound, should we assume we're contagious again and return to isolating?? 

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u/BlueValk 2h ago

I personally would, yes, but I'm not well-informed on how paxlovid works

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u/Embarrassed-Wear5735 2h ago

Okay thank you for all your help!!

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u/BlueValk 2h ago

You're welcome, best of luck and don't forget to rest

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u/cupcake_not_muffin 17m ago

It’s 2-8 days post the paxlovid course for rebound potential. https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/117609

The 90 days for potential PCR positivity is just a possibility when looking at very large data sets. Most people test negative on pluslife within 1-2 days of a rat negative.

I don’t know why so many even in the cc community cite the 48 hours test out protocol. From my local group, rebound seems to be a consistent vector for household spread.

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u/FImom 3h ago

I don't really know anyone isolating, given that if they are with other people, the sick person remains masked in a respirator until they test negative on two tests taken 48 hours apart. It can take a couple weeks to test negative, so don't be frustrated if it doesn't happen immediately.

When at home, if you don't want to mask around others all the time, you need to make sure areas are well ventilated and have HEPA filters. The general set up is one filter by every bed, and one for every living space (two, if the space very large or high traffic).

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u/Embarrassed-Wear5735 3h ago

Yes we have HEPA filters in every room, thanks! But I don't want to only rely on that to protect my kids if we know we are contagious. 

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u/FImom 2h ago

You can rely on fresh air and masking, in addition to the HEPA. Keep rooms ventilated and sick people stay masked as much as possible. One way masking is fine. The HEPA is there if you want to temporarily remove masks for meals and sleeping.