Is A Faint Line On My COVID Test Positive? Experts Explain – Women’s Health

Nothing puts a damper on your holiday plans like a positive

But what if that line is, like, super faint? Do you still have COVIDor can you go ahead and attend your office party like you planned?

Well, unfortunately, infectious disease experts stress that a faint line is definitely worth paying attention toalthough a re-test may be in your future.

Here's what you need to know.

Its probably not what youre hoping to hear, but a faint line on a COVID test means you have COVID-19. A faint line is a positive test result, says infectious disease expert Amesh Adalja, MD, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.

Thomas Russo, MD, a professor and chief of infectious diseases at the University at Buffalo in New York, agrees. A faint line means youre almost certainly positive, he says.

Kind of. If you test positivefaint or notit means that you have infectious COVID-19 particles in your body, Dr. Russo says.

But how dark the line is does give you a little insight into whats going on, Dr. Adalja says. The less dark, the line is, the less viral material that is present, he says. This could reflect diminishing contagiousness, or the start of it.

Meaning, you could be becoming more contagious or less contagious at that point, but a lot depends on the context. If youve been sick for a while and get a faint test result, it might mean youre getting better and are less likely to make others sick. If you just started feeling sick and you got a faint line, you likely only recently became infectious.

Remember, though, the CDC still advises staying home for five days after testing positiveor until you test negative.

It's also entirely possible that you just didnt get a great sample, which could lead to a faint line, Dr. Russo says.

Yes, it does. (Sorry.) Since home tests are not as sensitive as PCR testswhich are considered the gold standard of COVID-19 testinggetting a positive result still means that you have a fair amount of virus in your body, Dr. Russo says. A faint line means youre positive and infectious.

Lots of new COVID variants have emerged since home tests were created. And, FWIW, the most common variants in the U.S. right now include HV.1, JN.1, and EG.5, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). But doctors stress that home tests should still detect any new variant.

Why? A lot of changes in new variants have been on the spike protein, which SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) uses to latch onto your cells and infect you. The home tests are not based on the spike protein, Dr. Russo says. They detect nucleocapsid protein. The home tests should work for these new variants as well.

Dr. Russo also stresses this point: If you have symptoms of COVID-19 and test negative, it doesnt necessarily mean you dont have COVID. The sensitivity of these tests is 80 percent at best, he says. If the test is positive, you know you have COVID. If the result is negative, it doesnt necessarily mean you dont have COVID. (Usually for reasons like the sample you took wasn't the best or the amount of virus in your body isn't high enough yet.)

If you have symptoms and test negative, he suggests testing yourself again in 24 hours and seeing what you get. If youre still negative but feel sick, call your doctor. Its entirely possible that you have the flu, RSV, or something else.

Korin Miller is a freelance writer specializing in general wellness, sexual health and relationships, and lifestyle trends, with work appearing in Mens Health, Womens Health, Self, Glamour, and more. She has a masters degree from American University, lives by the beach, and hopes to own a teacup pig and taco truck one day.

See original here:

Is A Faint Line On My COVID Test Positive? Experts Explain - Women's Health