The start of a corona infection can often be easily defined. Once the virus has entered the body and begins to multiply, you are considered positive. You can usually tell that you have been infected with Corona by the typical Corona symptoms. The suspicion can be confirmed with a corresponding rapid antigen test or a PCR test, which is now carried out less frequently. But when do you fully recover? And how do the different versions differ?
Corona positive with Omicron: How long are you contagious?
Once the coronavirus is in the body, the incubation period begins. This can last several days and only then do symptoms appear – but other people can be infected with Sars-Cov-2 before then. According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the incubation period for Corona is on average around five to six and a half days. But the virus variants differ: The virus variants Alpha and Delta had an incubation period that was around 1.5-2 days shorter than the so-called wild type, i.e. the viruses that circulated in 2020. According to the RKI’s findings, the omicron variants have an incubation period of around three days. Since the Omicron variants currently predominate, there are infektionsschutz.dea website from the Federal Center for Health Education, generally assumes an incubation period of three days on average. But the time from infection to the onset of the disease could be between one and twelve days.
Infected people are most contagious in the days before and after the onset of the first corona symptoms. According to the Federal Center for Health Education, the ability to become infectious decreases significantly after a mild to moderate illness about ten days after the symptoms of the disease begin. However, those affected can also be contagious for much longer: for example, if the illness was severe or there is an immune deficiency.
Ultimately, however, the end of the infection period varies from person to person. A meta-study by a Chinese research team from the universities of Beijing, Hong Kong and Tsinghua, in which 142 studies were summarized and evaluated, showed that there are large deviations in the incubation period: in the range between 1.8 days and 18.8 days from corona contact and the positive test.
By the way: According to a study, a corona infection in pregnant women increases the risk of premature birth. The risk of miscarriage may also increase.
Corona infection: How long are you positive?
How long you are Corona-positive depends entirely on which definition of “positive” you look at: Depending on the area – for example from a medical point of view or according to Corona regulations – the length of time for which you are considered positive differs.
Cambridge researchers have found that omicron ensures positive tests for longer on average. The researchers used nasal swabs to determine the corona variants and the viral loads.
- Delta infected people were positive for a median of four days (the values ranged from three to five days)
- For those who were positive for omicrons, it took a median of five days (values from three to nine days).
By the way: It is also possible to get Covid-19 twice in a row. This is then called reinfection.
Corona test positive: is there still quarantine?
There is no longer an obligation to isolate in Corona, as there was at the beginning of the pandemic. Even those who are positive and have no symptoms could still go to work normally.
How long is positive for Corona: rapid tests
An antigen test is more likely to be positive if the amount of virus, also known as viral load, is large in the nasopharynx. “The viral load is highest one day before symptoms begin. When the first symptoms appear, they are already subsiding,” explained Dr. Andreas Ambrosch, head physician of the central laboratory of the Institute for Laboratory Medicine, Microbiology and Hospital Hygiene at the Barmfühle Brüder Hospital in Regensburg.
As the COVID-19 disease progresses, the viral load in the nasopharynx usually decreases quickly. When the symptoms subside at the latest, the rapid test usually shows a negative result.
How long positive? PCR test no longer becomes negative
In some cases, however, it also happens that the PCR test does not come back negative even weeks after the illness has subsided. “It is known and very frequently observed that PCR tests can still deliver a positive result even weeks after an infection,” says the director of the Institute for Medical Virology at the University Hospital Frankfurt, Sandra Ciesek. The reason for this is the technology behind the PCR tests. This is “very sensitive,” explains the virologist. “Remaining amounts of the virus’s genetic material can often still be detected, even if the infection has actually long since been overcome.”
It could also happen that one PCR test is negative, but the next one is weakly positive. Such weak results would then have to be interpreted. If the amount of virus is low and the infection is known to have subsided, it can be assumed that the person is no longer contagious despite a weakly positive PCR test.
-
Julius Bretzel Icon hook set in a circle Icon Plus in a circle
-
Coronavirus icon tick set in a circle Icon Plus in a circle
-
Robert Koch Institute Icon tick set in a circle Icon Plus in a circle
