Covid positive does not necessary mean covid infectious.
The infectious phase is part of the overall period that a person can test positive.
The PCR Test typically will show someone as positive for longer than they are actually infectious for. The PNG case was declared to not be infectious while being treated in Australia. Knowing if a person is Covid Positive does not define if a person is a risk to others or not. It just flags that they may be, and not that they are.
Does a PCR “TRUE POSITIVE” mean INFECTIVITY OR VIRULENCE?
What does viral culture tell about PCR positives?
A PCR test might find the virus it was looking for. This results in a PCR positive, but a crucial question remains: is this virus active, i.e. infectious, or virulent? The PCR alone cannot answer this question. The CEBM explains why culturing the virus is needed to answer this question:
“In viral culture, viruses are injected in the laboratory cell lines to see if they cause cell damage and death, thus releasing a whole set of new viruses that can go on to infect other cells.”
That is, if the PCR detects the virus in the human sample, this detection might correspond to a virus that is now incapable of infecting cells and reproducing. Biologists can tell if the virus is infectious by injecting it into cells (culture cells). If these cells are not affected by the virus and the virus does not reproduce in them, then the PCR test found a virus that is no longer active.
The meaning is that the PCR positive is a non-infectious positive.