Am I misreading or does not having symptoms make you not infectious? I can’t tell if you’re saying that or not.
Why do the test numbers keep on piling up?
Why do the test numbers keep on piling up?
- you're about to have the disease (presymptomatic)
- you have the disease (asymptomatic)
- you already cleared the virus
You might be infectious, but you don't know. And given the time window of infectiousness, delays in testing can give you a "positive, please isolate" notice when it's too late, and you potentially have spread the virus to others without knowing.
OTOH, antigen tests detect virus proteins (with far lower sensitivity), so it's far more likely that you have an active infection if you are positive.