astutiumRob

LHR security were fine with me carrying 3 of them in their sealed packaging/boxes on Tuesday but did ask me to put them in a separate bin (I had them in a large clear ziplock "in case" and asked if it was ok)

EvilDoctorK

In my experience its always time the sample was taken, not processing time - 48 hours is fairly tight for a postal kit, choose your supplier carefully or do an in person one instead maybe ?

mzb00

Italy doesn't require a PCR test though, anti-gen will do; which you can take over video - believe Qured provides those.

corporate-wage-slave

Have a look at my review of Randox and Eurofins upthread to see how it works. But in essence the certificates are printed with both a swab time and a test time, and if you are a 72 hour country then a postal process will work, even over the weekend, with a bit of careful attention to timings. Particularly if you order the test kit well in advance. The swab time on the certificate is the important bit for countries, but check-in agents - usually the only people who actually scrutinise these things - tend to focus on the test result time. It's incorrect that they do this but the certificates tend to have a clear date on the top for the certificate and the swab timing is buried in a mass of data. They also get distracted by unexpected stuff, e.g. why would your have test certificate produced in Northern Ireland?

48 hours is quite a tough window, but potentially ok for some testing companies, particularly if you have a Plan B in case it doesn't work. If a country accepts LAMP then that can be a good Plan B since that is a very fast and fairly accurate test process.

justin_krusty

Thanks CWS! Your review was very helpful, and I was working the timings back from the flight time and realising it’s tight. A morning flight makes this easier than a late afternoon one.

I haven’t seen a cert yet myself, so your info is very helpful. Sounds like they don’t even get validated by anyone which unfortunately makes them easy to fake.

justin_krusty

thanks, didn’t realise that, way easier!

fdem

We are flying back from Balearics July 5 was planning using Heathrow drive through but test dates we need all booked up. We don’t need a test to enter Spain ( that could change though) and will be quarantining at home, not a hardship for us have a big garden so no pressure to get tests back. Am thinking of using randox having tests posted for days 2 and 8 a relative bargain at £96 for the 2 using BA discount. Don’t trust post to return tests so will drive to local drop off at hotel near T4. Has anyone used this service.

Frequentflyer99

In your situation, as an alternative I can heartily recommend "TestingForAll" for £105. Although postal, it all worked faultlessly with everything going exactly according to schedule. E.g. posted my day 8 Thurs PM and result came this morning (Sat) at 8.00 am. It seems to be that the PO do handle the 24hr medical materials reliably.

fartoomanyusers

Are Express Test closing their Heathrow drive through facility ?

It looks like no bookings are available after Tuesday 15th June

I used the facility on Wednesday and it was very quiet - they said that after Portugal was taken off the green list, business had slumped.


Express Test Heathrow Drive Through

fdem

thanks for your advice will give them a try

corporate-wage-slave

In my post 114 above I reviewed the "ready to fly" PCR home testing kits for Eurofins and Randox, using the BA discounted rates of £40 and £60 respectively. These tests are needed by many countries prior to arrival and therefore also needed for check-in at T5 or VeriFLY. They can also be used, if the timing works, for the UK pre-departure testing when returning to the UK from short overseas trips.

Here I have a look at the CityDoc test kit for UK arrival day2, which is required for Green and Amber stays, with Amber also needing the day8 test in most cases. These test have to be from an approved list issued by HMG, since genome sequencing is involved with positive tests for day2, to track variants and mutations. This test costs £80 and with the BA discount it comes down to £60, however Randox has since cut their prices for the day2 to £43 with the BA discount. There is some connection between CityDoc and Randox, but I haven't managed to work it out precisely, I have a feeling Randox organises the back office side, whereas CityDoc has the front office aspects. I paid with Amex. When you place the order, there is a clear email with the booking reference number, which you need both for the PLF and for showing check-in staff before the UK bound flight.

As mentioned previously, the risk of me testing positive for COVID-19 is vanishingly small, not least because my employment with the vaccine deployment means I'm tested reguarly at work for both antibodies and antigen receptors. So I didn't have to worry about the implications of a positive test.

Item delivery
The test arrived as promised on day1 via Royal Mail Tracked 24. I would have been allowed to use it immediately, but I decided to wait until day2, where arrival day is day0. The kit was sent using postal fulfillment specialist Huboo, from Bristol and the tracking information suggested with was delivered well within 24 hours.

Kit contents and using them.
The kit was similar, but different, to the Randox kit, with CityDoc branding. It included 2 sets of instructions, one generic instruction for swab tests, the other a CityDoc specific set of PCR instructions, which was what relevant to this process. The Citydoc instructions were clear but the process is fairly similar to all postal PCRs and quite similar to lateral flow testing. In this case it was the long thin bendy swab for use in the throat around the tonsils and using both nose channels, rather than the usual one nasal channel. There was a tube with preservative buffer in it, and after snapping the swap at the built in groove, the swab end goes into that tube, inverted a few times, and returned to the packaging. There is a sealed sample bag for the tube, a shock absorbing pad, and the bag goes back into the small packaging cardbox box, then into the standard UN3373 polythene envelope mandated for samples in the post.

Registering the kit.
CityDoc has a web app for registering the kit, which is optimised for mobile phone use (both Android and iOS) but the app can be used on a PC or tablet, there's just a lot of white space around the display area. You should register the kit just before use, there are two stages - registering the user, then registering the barcode on the tube. So this allows for multiple test kits under one user. Unlike with the other two tests, this generate an individual code which then has to be written on to a very small paper area on the tube itself, so there is no way to do this after you have sealed up the tube in the return envelope. It's quite tricky to write this on the tube, so if you have poor eyesight or poor writing skills you may need someone to help, and a suitable pen for small writing. This web app isn't that useful, it doesn't track the sample's progress, but when the results are in there is a certificate download facility. I registered the kit at 16:19 on Thursday and took my swab sample within a minute or two of that. This time duly appeared on the final certificate.

Laboratory location
The lab used for processing is in Manchester M13, near Whitworth Park, which is a mile or two south of central Manchester, so some people will be able to drop off the test in person.

Posting and tracking the kits
The supplied kit has a Tracked 24 sitcky label included, which means it can go in any post box. The strong advice is to use Priority Mail boxes, which can be found on maps on the Royal Mail website, some places have a late Saturday and Sunday collection option. But either way, it's an easy process. Make a note of the tracking number from the label, which ends GB.

Timings CityDoc via Royal Mail track and trace
Posted Ponteland 17:30 Thursday - advertised final collection is 18:00 hrs.
Received Tyneside (Team Valley Gateshead) regional Mail Centre 18:43
Received Manchester Mail Centre 02:37 Friday
Sorted for delivery Manchester Mail Centre 07:38
Delivered by Manchester Mail Centre 09:12 Friday.
Email notifying me of App update (and thus a negative certificate) 18:23 Saturday
Total time post collection to result: 48 hours.
Lab Processing time: 33 hours (advertised as 24-48 hours).

Communications
The web app isn't terribly informative, and you only have the Royal Mail tracking to know the delivery has been made. I did get a mysterious SMS message from Randox apologising for delays at their "3rd party ticketing provider" and promised an update, but I'm none the wiser what this meant. When the test result was ready I got an email prompting me to check the web app, which in turn has a facility to email the certificate to any email address provided. The certificate is the least specific of the 3 providers reviewed, it just says "negative" with little extra information, it didn't give the specific testing device used, though I suspect it is PerkinElmer. The passport number appears as "document number".

Conclusion
I was also reasonably happy with this service. With the Randox price cut it makes more sense to use Randox direct given that they are somewhat cheaper and faster. The Royal Mail were fairly quick in getting the package from Northumberland to Manchester (it takes about 4 hours even if driving directly) but that was lost on a relatively slow lab processing time. For day2 tests this doesn't matter much, other than NHST&T tend to hassle people for the results for those coming from Amber countries. Green need to have a day2 test booked in most cases, but there doesn't seem to be many consquences for late service. For day8 then this set-up would allow release from isolation on day 10, as allowed in law.

want2goeverywhere

Is it possible to buy day 2 and day 8 kits separately?

It would be very convenient to do day 2 test at airport on arrival but to do day 8 at home and post off for results. I only see them being sold as sets on most sites. Have I missed something?

Gagravarr

Yup, several providers will sell you just a day 8 test, eg Randox offer it currently for £48 at https://www.randoxhealth.com/covid-1...-and-8-testing (pick "Day 8 Only" in the dropdown)

ankomonkey

I returned from Portugal on Thursday 3rd June and took and sent my BioGrad Diagnostics postal Day-2 test on Saturday 5th June, along with the 3 tests for my family. First result arrived on our Day 5, second result on our Day 6, third result on our Day 9 (all negative). The 4th and final test - mine - still hasn't had the result sent. I've e-mailed (no response so far) and phoned (can't get through to anyone); there is no online check of test status on their site. If this was for TTR then my quarantine would be over before the result arrived. If I actually had asymptomatic Covid and a positive result, then I would have potentially been spreading it. It sort of makes all this testing farcical if the testing companies are this unreliable. For the record, my Eurofins pre-travel tests didn't arrive and my Biograd Day-2 test is whereabouts unknown. If this is how they manage the presumably simpler sending of tests and results, how confident should we be that they can do the presumably trickier test swab assessments?

Frequentflyer99

Given that many of the fringe operators are simply buying capacity from the main testing labs, there seems no good reason to keep authorising them. They have achieved the aim of getting the price down, but at what public health cost ?

As a PS I had a good experience with Biogroup for my TTR. They are not the same as Biograd (and Biograd actually have terrible Trustpilot reviews, so worth checking those - and posting them !).