My roommate has COVID, and I have symptoms. But I tested negative for COVID. Kindly help.

Question

Hello doctor,

I am currently in a house with someone who has COVID-19. We were at a party with someone who had it and then they got it from the infected person, but we share a room. I have been sleeping on the couch ever since they got a fever but now I am showing symptoms. I did an at-home test the same day they did, they tested positive for COVID-19 and I tested negative. Two days later (earlier today) we went and got a rapid test. Again the same results, but I feel like I have a lot of the symptoms, I just do not have a fever. And I share the house with my grandparents and my brother and his girlfriend. I have been just thinking about going into my room but do not want to risk getting COVID-19 if I do not have it.

Kindly help.

Answer 1

Hi,

Welcome to icliniq.com.

I studied your problem carefully.

Understand that there is an incubation period. The symptoms generally appear after the incubation period. A few days to a week or 10 days. Understand that the tests are not 100 % sensitive. The tests are only 60 to 70 % sensitive which means if 100 COVID patients are tested, only about 60 to 70 persons show positive test results.

In contrast, the remaining 30 or 40 persons show negative test results even if infected. Take all precautions as if you are COVID positive. Most likely, you are infected.