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A home rapid antigen CoVid test on day 6 of a quarantine overestimates the risk that you are still infectious by some 40%.  This from a Boston-based study run by researchers from Harvard, MIT, and Boston  University.

 

Forty young CoVid-vaccinated and 90% boosted young adults, mean age 32 years, were studied after testing PCR-positive for CoVid Omicron.  All underwent both rapid antigen testing and viral culture testing on day 6 of their quarantine.  The rapid antigen test on that day declared that 75% of the group remained positive.  However, the viral cultures indicated that only 35% were continuing to carry live, transmissible virus.

 

The investigators conclude that a negative rapid antigen test on day 6 should be the signal to end the quarantine.  If your rapid antigen test is positive, there is a good chance that you aren’t actually caring live virus.  However, only a negative viral culture or PCR test will permit you to end your isolation at that time.  If you don’t have that, continuing the quarantine an additional 5 days would be necessary ending it after that time if you’re asymptomatic.

 

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.03.03.22271766v1.full.pdf+html

 

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