I think I read from 2 to 14 days but the average is 5 days and 97% are positive by day 11

BBQ4Me said:

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If you're already showing a symptom (eg, coughing), does that mean you're less likely to get a False Negative?

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Assuming your cough is from the virus, if you have symptoms, you probably have a significant viral load and would be more likely to test positive.

That said, symptoms usually develop at the 5-7 day mark, so symptoms coincides with the positive test time frame.

That said, the argument for testing people who don't have symptoms is that people can be infectious before they develop symptoms. But if the average positive test is 5 days post exposure and symptoms typically show up around the same time, all this testing of people without symptoms isn't really doing much to prevent spread before symptoms develop. I believe the CDC current guidelines of not recommending testing but to self isolate with exposure is a recognition that testing people without symptoms isn't really doing much. Also, people getting a negative 1 day after exposure and assuming that negative is meaningful is probably doing more harm than good.