Yet-Another ->CDG question: acceptable Covid tests? BD Veritor?
Nov 19, 2020, 4:14 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Earth (non-US)
Programs: NW Gold->CO->UA->DL PM
Posts: 1,339
Yet-Another ->CDG question: acceptable Covid tests? BD Veritor?
Given the new list of acceptable C19 tests :
https://newyork.consulfrance.org/cor...levement-nasal
PCR / Coronavirus (COVID-19) PCR
RT-PCR
SARS-CoV2 Assay
SARS-CoV2-RT PCR
SARS-COV2 RNA
SARS-CoV2 DDPCR
Nucleic-acid Amplification test (NAAT)
Molecular Assay or test
LAMP Test
Tests Antigéniques Biologiques
does anyone see why the BD Veritor test (https://www.bd.com/en-us/offerings/c...-cov-2-testing) currently in use at CityMD locations would not be accepted? (It appears to be a nasal antigen test).
My current plan is to get results from CityMD, then head out to JFK two days in advance, and ask at the check-in desk (with only AF 7, anyone have an idea how early the desk is opening at JFK?). Mt. Sinai would then be a backup, with the testing center at Terminal 1 JFK being another backup if AF staff will accept it.
Seems rather odd to leave the interpretation of what is what up to AF staff, rather than have a specific list such as this one for French Polynesia: https://www.bd.com/en-us/offerings/c...-cov-2-testing
https://newyork.consulfrance.org/cor...levement-nasal
Tests PCR en prélèvement nasal
PCR / Coronavirus (COVID-19) PCR RT-PCR SARS-CoV2 Assay SARS-CoV2-RT PCRTests rapides en prélèvement nasal
SARS-COV2 RNA SARS-CoV2 DDPCR Nucleic-acid Amplification test (NAAT) Molecular Assay or test LAMP Test Tests Antigéniques Biologiquesdoes anyone see why the BD Veritor test (https://www.bd.com/en-us/offerings/c...-cov-2-testing) currently in use at CityMD locations would not be accepted? (It appears to be a nasal antigen test).
My current plan is to get results from CityMD, then head out to JFK two days in advance, and ask at the check-in desk (with only AF 7, anyone have an idea how early the desk is opening at JFK?). Mt. Sinai would then be a backup, with the testing center at Terminal 1 JFK being another backup if AF staff will accept it.
Seems rather odd to leave the interpretation of what is what up to AF staff, rather than have a specific list such as this one for French Polynesia: https://www.bd.com/en-us/offerings/c...-cov-2-testing
Nov 20, 2020, 4:13 am
#2
Join Date: May 2020
Programs: Flying Blue, Mileage Plus
Posts: 88
While I don't have an answer to the question that started this thread, I would like to use the occasion to voice my frustration at the difficulty of figuring out what is actually available in terms of testing in the U.S. to return to France. I can imagine that others feel the same way.
I would note that the AF U.S. website (not repeated on the France website) states (with my bolding in yellow):
One real problem I've faced, as I try to decide whether to take a trip to the U.S. I have planned 5-19 December, is where to get an approved test in time for my planned return to France. The consulate in DC (my flights are in and out of IAD) has a useful, albeit apparently not updated, list of testing centers in its consular district. Checking those possibilities leads to many dead ends or unclear information. Most of the centers talk about PCR testing. The one I used in early October no longer promises results in less than three days (the current estimated range is 3-5 days). There is no more precise description of rapid antigen tests than just that. My impression is that most of those tests involve blood from finger pricks. The GOF, however, seems to want tests that take samples from nasal passages using a swab. I have not been able to reach anyone by phone so far, and my e-mails or other messages have so far elicited no responses. In what I would call a typical digital negative feedback loop, the voice mails invariably refer callers back to the imprecise information online.
I don't expect anyone on this forum to offer advice/solutions. This is more, as I said, of an expression of frustration. I really wish, since we are talking about CDG in a forum dedicated to AF, that AF would 1) regularly updated its information (which was among the most authoritative up to the current "confinement" in France) and 2) offer more solutions to customers near airports it currently serves. The only exception has been JFK, which AF mentions on its U.S. website. Rotsa ruck to those of us outside the tri-state area.
As a final note, and not wishing to muddy the waters further, I'll recount my experience on returning to CDG in early October. I checked in for my flight from IAD back to Paris, per all the online guidance, with documentation of a negative PCR test result exactly three /72 hours earlier. I was in P, so had an AF escort upon arrival. As we approached a practically empty arrival hall in terminal 2E, one of the young women asked for my test result. I showed it to her, explaining that it was in English ("Sans souci," she replied). She then castigated me for having a test that was four days old, claiming that the requirement was 72 hours prior to arrival in France. I pushed back, as did my escort. There was no one in the line (yet) for testing in Paris, so I would have reluctantly but gratefully accepted another test. But no, the woman dropped her objection and let me continue.
Oh, yeah. When I presented my passport and titre de séjour, "comme d'habitude," to the immigration officer, he was disinterested in the famous attestations for travel and health. Kind of like being told at Dulles two weeks earlier that no one was collecting any longer the HHS forms distributed in flight to passengers arriving in the U.S.
I would note that the AF U.S. website (not repeated on the France website) states (with my bolding in yellow):
As of August 1, new entry requirements for France will take effect mandating negative COVID-19 test (PCR test) results before boarding any Air France flight to France. Passengers departing from the United States are required to have a negative COVID-19 test (PCR test) taken 72 hours before departure.
In other words, AF continues to state that a PCR test is required. The website, of course, links to French consular information with the list of acceptable tests to include various rapid "antigen" tests that suggest alternatives to the time-consuming but more reliable PCR tests. I put the word antigen quotes because it takes a lot of work to verify online that the acceptable tests cited are antigen tests.One real problem I've faced, as I try to decide whether to take a trip to the U.S. I have planned 5-19 December, is where to get an approved test in time for my planned return to France. The consulate in DC (my flights are in and out of IAD) has a useful, albeit apparently not updated, list of testing centers in its consular district. Checking those possibilities leads to many dead ends or unclear information. Most of the centers talk about PCR testing. The one I used in early October no longer promises results in less than three days (the current estimated range is 3-5 days). There is no more precise description of rapid antigen tests than just that. My impression is that most of those tests involve blood from finger pricks. The GOF, however, seems to want tests that take samples from nasal passages using a swab. I have not been able to reach anyone by phone so far, and my e-mails or other messages have so far elicited no responses. In what I would call a typical digital negative feedback loop, the voice mails invariably refer callers back to the imprecise information online.
I don't expect anyone on this forum to offer advice/solutions. This is more, as I said, of an expression of frustration. I really wish, since we are talking about CDG in a forum dedicated to AF, that AF would 1) regularly updated its information (which was among the most authoritative up to the current "confinement" in France) and 2) offer more solutions to customers near airports it currently serves. The only exception has been JFK, which AF mentions on its U.S. website. Rotsa ruck to those of us outside the tri-state area.
As a final note, and not wishing to muddy the waters further, I'll recount my experience on returning to CDG in early October. I checked in for my flight from IAD back to Paris, per all the online guidance, with documentation of a negative PCR test result exactly three /72 hours earlier. I was in P, so had an AF escort upon arrival. As we approached a practically empty arrival hall in terminal 2E, one of the young women asked for my test result. I showed it to her, explaining that it was in English ("Sans souci," she replied). She then castigated me for having a test that was four days old, claiming that the requirement was 72 hours prior to arrival in France. I pushed back, as did my escort. There was no one in the line (yet) for testing in Paris, so I would have reluctantly but gratefully accepted another test. But no, the woman dropped her objection and let me continue.
Oh, yeah. When I presented my passport and titre de séjour, "comme d'habitude," to the immigration officer, he was disinterested in the famous attestations for travel and health. Kind of like being told at Dulles two weeks earlier that no one was collecting any longer the HHS forms distributed in flight to passengers arriving in the U.S.