jfkeze

5000 ARS or 35 USD Blue Rate, test results in 12 hours or so in Buenos Aires

graytidy

Is there any reason to suspect that Abbott’s BinaxNOW COVID-19 test wouldn't qualify? It is an antigen test and gives you a "certificate" viewable on your phone, but you take it at home. They are about $30/ea online from emed.

runningshoes

It looks like the reversal of travel from most of the EU and full restrictions on Brazil and S. Africa will be announced tomorrow. One version I saw on one of the outlets had all travel from S. Africa and Brazil, the other was non-US citizen restrictions.

Global Adventurer

Yes, I've seen that on the internet. I don't understand why they are still banning flights from certain countries since everybody needs to have covid tests before flying. The reason I don't understand is because all the people in brazil or south africa can just fly to mexico and then fly from mexico to the US. or cross at the borders. That's the part I don't get.

runningshoes

The stated reason I saw for those 2 specific countries was the high concentration of the new virus variants - I don't know why that really makes a difference unless they're worried about people getting through the testing but still being positive.

Global Adventurer

I understand that, but Mexico gets a boatload of Brazilians flying in. That's why the UK banned portugal too because Brazilians go there like Mexicans go to Spain. I don't think the bans are going to do anything when there's so many work arounds.

Yellowjj

Nasal Swab usually.

runningshoes

Agree - unless they add banning the passport holder of the country and not just "flight from" location. I guess we'll see the formal announcement tomorrow.

Yellowjj

Antigen tests are not as accurate as PCR tests, but the US has decided to allow them to be used for entry. Anyone besides US citizens or LPR's who have been in one of the banned countries will have to spend a minimum of 14 days in the transitioning country to gain access to the US. Most people don't have that kind of time or in some cases, the resources to do that. Some of Europe and South Africa is dealing with a new more contagious strain of covid; kind of the last thing you want to get any sort of foothold in the US, where some people already don't want to follow mask or social distance guidelines.

In my opinion the ban on Europe & the UK should have been lifted from June of last year and not used as some ploy, two days before leaving office by the former president, but that's another topic.

Global Adventurer

The Mexican President just tested positive for Covid19 finally. He never wears a mask. I have a feeling the Brazilian variant is already in Mexico. But, since the testing here is next to none, nobody will know

GUWonder

Covid-19 tests before flights are estimated by some to make no more than a 5-9% reduction in the risk of a tested airline passengers getting/spreading Covid-19.

The big return in reducing the risk of airline passengers getting/spreading Covid-19 from these US testing requirements comes from the diminished travel demand that is a product of the additional costs (including costs in time and money) for testing and the expected additional costs of potentially being a positive case.

scubadu

Somehow I really, really doubt that. Your MO is pretty well documented and history says you will simply be unable to resist.

Getting a rapid antigen test is pretty simple and cheap (free?), I suspect this will not slow you down much (even though slowing you down is the entire point of the executive order...)

Regards

runningshoes

Here's the most recent update I could find regarding the expected travel ban. In theory, as noted above by Global Adventurer, you can still get around the ban via a 2-week stay in Mexico + a negative virus test.

https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2021/01/25/960229515/biden-to-implement-travel-restrictions-to-combat-new-coronavirus-variants
Biden will reimpose a ban on many non-U.S. citizens attempting to enter the country. The move is an attempt to limit the spread of COVID-19 and contain new variants of the disease that have cropped up in several countries around the globe, according to media reports Sunday.

The ban, expected to start Monday, would prohibit travelers from the United Kingdom, Ireland and 26 countries in Europe that allow travel across open borders, called the Schengen Area, according to Reuters. It will also block entry to travelers from Brazil and South Africa, where researchers discovered new variants of the virus.

Global Adventurer

The only way to actually stop all the new variants from entering the US, is 14 day mandatory quarantine like Australia. But, that will never happen, so all the variants will end up in the US over the coming weeks/months, if they're not already there.

enviroian

You make it sound like I have a disease