I tested positive on the 30th Nov, 2 of the kids tested positive on the 1st. Wife tested positive on the 6th. The middle child has never tested positive after 5 attempts. Symptoms have been extremely mild.
I was due to attend a family christening tomorrow so we all took PCRs yesterday just so we could down with a peaceful mind. We were worried about the middle child who had never tested positive.
Results back today. The middle child and myself were both negative. While Mrs Pox was still positive after 9 days, and the other 2 kids were still positive after 16 days.
The range of time you can be contagious after initial infection is 8 - 37 days, you are most contagious 2 days before symptoms start to three days after symptoms start. For mild symptoms the great majority are not contagious after 10 days, 20 days for those that had more severe illness. You can still test positive for months afterwards as the PCR test is incredibly sensitive.
Do yourself a favour and just get on with it. Don’t visit anyone who might be frail or infirm or if any of ye are quite sick stay home but other than that get on with it and stop this utter nonsense. We’re long enough into this now to know what the fucking craic is.