thijsseh

Where in the UK are you located?
I am travelling on 14/11 and have booked a test with Wren healthcare who have a 24 hour service. They have several locations in the South East plus one I think in the Midlands. I am using their Sandwich facility on 12/11. The booking process was very easy and professional. Their website sucks, so rather call the number given.
I have just, minutes ago, read about a ‘swab test’ that Boots will be offering but as it has a 12 minute turnaround, I suspect it won’t be a PCR test and therefore not be accepted for travel.

I look forward to hear about your CPT arrival!

Postdoc

Useful to know about Wren. We're hoping to fly out on Xmas eve. What's the situation about visas if one has permission to travel for business purposes? The official info I've seen is contradictory.

hfly

Fly via IST with TK, schedule an overnight connection and just get your PCR done in IST, delivery times are always less than 8 yours, sometimes as little as 2. If you can manage to do the payment beforehand via EFT, you miss most of the queues.

Steve_ZA

The Boots test is of the antigen protein type according to the BBC article.

CoolCanuck54

Hi everyone, just wanted to share my experience. I arrived at JNB last week Monday the 19th from YYZ via FRA.

In Toronto, Lufthansa checked my covid test at check in. In FRA, I decided to do another express covid test just to be on the safe side as I had a 13 hour layover. My flight was 1/4 full FRA to YYZ. Full service for meals was given as normal and everyone on board complied with wearing masks.

When we landed at JNB, the pilot announced that border officials would come on board to check our covid tests. 10 minutes later he announced that in fact no one would be checking and that they would check at border control. A health screening formula was also required to be completed before disembarking.

Prior to entering customs my covid test from Germany was checked only once. Customs was empty and I was out within 20 minutes.
No temperature was checked and no one checked travel insurance anywhere (although I had proof).

Now that Canada is deemed as high risk, I will have to go the business route for re-entry in December.

Davesa

I'd get your Business application in now. I've been waiting 3 weeks with no response yet! I've given up and applied for a relatives visa as I have a South African wife so this long term visa 'should' guarantee me entry regardless of the risk status of the UK

FlyingFrZ

Not sure how much to read into this, but we might see borders opened by Christmas. Fingers crossed but not holding my breath.

"Tourism minister Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane says that government is now hopeful of opening the country’s borders to all countries before the December holidays.Kubayi-Ngubane said that opening the country for international tourism would be a major boost to the economy – but stressed that government has to balance this with the potential risk of enabling a second wave of Covid-19 infections.“


https://businesstech.co.za/news/busi...trictions/amp/

Steve_ZA

I'm not sure that South Africans want an influx of tourists from countries with climbing infection rates at the moment. We hope that our collective situation improves by Christmas but that doesn't look certain at the moment.

T8191

Indeed, Steve. The few countries that we track more closely have all suffered from "infectious tourists". Unsurprisingly, our cases spiked then we re-opened the border of our little Island.

Only those with detailed knowledge, and the ability to analyse the data, will be able to determine where the crossover of risk between Health and Economy lies.

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

johan rebel

Costa Rica has decided that the economy takes priority, and has announced that all tourists are now welcome, no PCR test required anymore:

IMPORTANT NOTICES:

• As of October 26, all local and foreign passengers who enter Costa Rica by air are not required to present a RT-PCR diagnostic test with a negative result.
• As of November 1: Costa Rica re-enables its air border to all countries in the world as long as they meet the visa requirements when required, as well as the requirements established in the framework of the pandemic

Source

As a prime mover, the country may well benefit from pent-up demand. There are actually still people who are keen to travel, corona be damned. When I told a colleague about Costa Rica the other day, he immediately started looking into flight and Accommodation options, and by evening had found plenty great deals.

Johan

cheltzel

I missed that post or I would have responded to it earlier. I live in the outer suburbs of the Chicago metropolitan area. I have two different commercial medical testing services within a 15 minute drive of my house that will give me an acceptable PCR/RT test result within 2 to 4 hours. The cost is around $125 and no doctors order is needed. If required for our next trip to South Africa in the Summer of 2021, we will get the test either the afternoon of the day before or the morning of our departure. The results will be with 24 hours of departure and within 48 hours of arrival.

Here in the US most of the large pharmacy chains have stores that offer drive through testing at this time. I have no idea if a specific test at a specific location is acceptable for international travel purposes. But the Walgreens location near my house uses the Abbott Labs test which is accepted by most countries I have researched. Their results can be gotten within 24 hours.

The Dominican Republic has also dropped the requirement for a negative test.

Much of the remainder of Central America and the Caribbean still have some form of a test requirement. But most are 72 hours of the date of departure and some are longer than that.

konagirl2

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.

cheltzel

I think that issues relating to availability and timeliness are largely location dependent. In the developed industrial world the technology should be readily available. I checked with several labs in my area and found that expedited RT-PCR test results were widely available with results within 4 hours (maximum). By widely available I mean more than 4 locations within a 30 minute drive of my house. I have seen discussions in this thread complaining about the availability of these tests (and results in a few hours) in Britain. I suspect this lack of availability may be due to regulatory or financial causes. But the technology is readily available in the diagnostic test marketplace for any lab, hospital, government, etc to buy it. Airlines and airport operators are starting to look at funding testing on their own. United Airlines in the US already has a pilot program to perform Covid testing at two airports. This Is the rapid (15 minutes results) test that has a lower accuracy rate. American, Hawaiian and JetBlue are also starting some form of Covid testing programs. A few US airports have started offering on site COVID testing. This is also happening internationally as well. IST airport offers RT-PCR testing. Emirates is requiring RT-PCR testing for all passengers from specific countries, regardless of their destination.

My point in this is the landscape for travel is extremely fluid right now. All of the players (airlines, airports, governments, etc) are very interested in getting as many people as possible travelling again because it is a large source of revenue for local economies. My guess is in January we will see a lot more open destinations and there will be a lot of testing available. And even more by next March/April But as always travel for many people is a voluntary activity. If someone feels it is too high risk, they should not travel.

T8191

Location is the key. We were encouraged by this Newspaper article in August, but it all seems to have gone quiet since then. And it also highlights the challenge in getting a timely result before setting off to do JER-UK-wherever. I admit to serious envy when those in UK can get this mega-obstacle cleared at a relatively close facility!

https://jerseyeveningpost.com/news/2...19-swab-tests/,