Discussions

So I have a friend and she was sick with the stomach bug. Her boss told her to get tested. She did. Negative. With no symptoms. Now I find out she has to quarantine for two weeks. Can someone explain this to me. Because from what I understand employers can't say your positive when your test is negative. I told the friend to go the HR or call the laborboard. Because this is ridiculous. Saying your positive when your test says negative.

I had COVID and I had to for 5 days or 36 hrs after symptoms end . That’s from public health . Only thing I could think of they were not vaccinated. Could also employment policy.

Your friend isn't without symptoms, they have/had vomiting and other gastrointestinal symptoms. Sometimes that's all people have. That was a primary symptom for one of my kids (they also had a fever).  
 
A negative test isn't a guarantee that you don't have Covid. It only means the test didn't detect it. Covid tests will only show negative if it doesn't detect enough particles that it's looking for, but there's lots of reasons why it didn't detect it - not having Covid is actually only one reason in a list of multiple reasons.  
 
Other reasons can i:nclude (but are not limited to) problems with sample-taking (especially a problem with these rapid self-tests if you don't carefully follow the instructions), testing too early or too late during the course of the illness, not following the directions accurately in processing the test, or not having sufficiently high levels of virus to trigger the test (different tests of different levels of sensitivity, some variants trigger a positive test more easily than others).  
 
Think of it like a pregnancy test - false positives are fairly rare, but false negatives are quite common, usually for the same reasons Covid tests can give a false negative.  
 
Also, policy rules are different for vaccinated and non-vaccinated people. AND it's also possible that there was a miscommunication between your friend and their employer, one side not fully understanding or communicating well.

Vaccinated and unvaccinated have different isolation days after symptoms are finished. Not before.  
 
Even if negative on your test doesn’t mean you are. You are certainly sick with something. I know who had test and it showed negative and a couple days later positive.  
 
If you go at the wrong time during illnesses false results may occur.  
 
If you live with others and they get sick you have to stay home till everyone is well and isolation period is over for all.  
 
It wasn’t clear if your friend got advice from public health on isolation period. Personally I would get another COVID-19 test done.  
 
And go from there. Staying home till all symptoms are finished is a must.