Originally Posted by
johan rebel
Company I work for now has on-site testing 7 days a week, compulsory for all employees arriving from other countries (we have a handful of those almost every day). Per employer specs it is a nose swab, which some dislike, but otherwise it is a very smooth and efficient process. Results within 15-20 minutes.
Johan
It is important to note exactly the requirements of each country when attempting to gain entry, in relation to what the 'covid negative' certification is required. A test that gives you a result in 15-20 minutes is not going to satisfy immigration officials that you are not carrying coronavirus. Currently from what I have seen if you need a certified test, you need a RT-PCR test, administered by a medical professional and the laboratory testing for that test takes time. The type of testing that a Government, or a work environment, is happy with is a balance of risk and expedience given the possibility of false-positives or false-negatives of the actual tests.
All documents / legislation I have seen requires a RT-PCR test, with the swab taken by a medical professional, within a time frame from departure (or arrival), and a certification from the lab and the administering medical practitioner, usually confirming the time and date of the swab taken. The swab needs to be taken by a medical person because home testers tend not to get the swab right up the nose (it can be painful) and the time and date of the swab needs to be declared. The RT-PCR test takes the swab, extracts the RNA that we believe identifies the SARs-CoV-2 virus, adds reagent to reconstruct DNA and then goes through heating and cooling cycles to enhance / amplify the DNA and then the detection is done. Even if your hospital buys the lab machine and there is no queue for testing (or you have paid for an expedited processing) you aren't going to get results from swab to certificate is less than a few hours. And given the practicalities and limited number of appropriate lab machines and operatives, I think it is reasonable that private facilities are offering a private RT-PCR test and certification adequate for travel within ~48 hours in most countries now. I don't think it will get any quicker than that in the foreseeable future given the practicalities of the test. So if you want / need to travel internationally I think we all have to be realistic that this will be a requirement and a bit of pain, but not a complete show-stopper, for the foreseeable future. I personally prefer the idea of paying for a PCR test before travel, on entry and on exit, than quarantine for 14 days.