DrinkSlinger

It appears that the OP comes from the point of “if they test positive, can they just ignore the negative test, keep doing what they’re doing at the destination without quarantining, and hope that a test the next day is negative so that they can travel home as originally planned?”

cheltzel

I'll share the experience we had (we being a group of four in our extended family) travelling to South Africa this past June. We ended our stay with a multi-day stay at a safari camp in the Kruger Park area. I had built in an over 24 hour stay in JNB on our return from the Kruger area to get tested. But we decided to get tested in the camp and do other things in the JNB area on our last day in country. Unfortunately the camp had just gotten the relationship set up with the lab and they apparently mishandled the specimens (not submitted on time, possibly specimens not taken correctly for all of us, possibly not stored/refrigerated, etc) and one of us came back positive.

We didn't find this out until we got off the plane in JNB. We had the party who had been positive go for multiple tests. The first was a quick antigen test at one of the airport test stations (Dis-Chem). This came back negative. We then used Ampath (a local lab who had a desk at our airport hotel) and had them do both a blood draw antibody test and a nasal swab RT-PCR test. We did that at the advice of the Ampath staff. We got those results back in < 8 hours and both were negative. All three of the emergency tests were done with full reporting (passport number, etc) and the person who had the false positive had absolutely no issues in leaving South Africa the next day.

pfreet

The hypothetical proposed is that they are asymptomatic and only learn they have the virus because of the travel test. Nobody is proposing to ignore the test, IMO, if you are vaccinated and don't have symptoms, just be careful, no need to hibernate. If symptomatic, then quarantine. Otherwise, if this happens, enjoy a few extra days hiking in Italy, avoid people and return when you can get a negative test.

daniellam

This is where memberships like Covac Global come in handy. If you test positive and "self report" at least one symptom, they will fly you home in an air ambulance (negative COVID tests not required for air ambulance entry into the US and many other countries). Note that if you go to large scale events such as concerts, sports games or if the destination has a stay at home order, then your Covac Global coverage would be void.

Also, even if you are fully vaccinated and your destination country does not require a negative COVID test because of that, as a precaution you should get tested anyway in case you are an asymptomatic carrier of the virus.

Middle_Seat

Thanks for the comments everyone! I'm not sure if my two friends will go on their trip to Italy or not...one of them is particularly concerned about the possibility of doing an extended stay in quarantine. They asked me for advice on this scenario because of my own recent return from Italy.

My family's vacation in Italy ended ~2 weeks ago. My wife and I took BinaxNOW Home Test kits with us, and we used them in the hotel room ~40 hours before departure. We propped a phone up vertically so the human "guide" could see our faces along with the test kit lying on the desk, then I began to worry that the phone might 'go to sleep' during the 15-minute processing time. To prevent the phone from sleeping we touched the screen every 30 seconds, very gently so the phone would not topple over. My "guide" came online almost immediately when I began. Right after my test my wife started hers, but she had to wait for about 20 minutes for her "guide" to come online. The 15-minute waits during processing were stressful,...would we be Positive or Negative?? Fortunately, we both tested Negative.

If either of us had tested Positive I'm not sure what we could have done. Being August, there were few hotel vacancies and we could not have continued at our hotel. Would we be homeless pariahs?? My friends, traveling in September when all the Europeans have gone back to work, probably will be able to extend their hotel stay if needed.

Once again, I appreciate all the ideas. I've passed some on.

Milesaway76

Yup. I travel to México every other month for a week sometimes 2 weeks at a time. Because of the pandemic and people needlessly freaking out I have been forced to pack for double the stay just incase. The men in my life rn laugh but I'll be damned if I have to be forced into isolation and not have enough clean clothes. This is where flying first, getting two checked bags at a total weight of 140 pounds comes in handy.

invisible

This won’t work in countries/situation where you are mandated to carry government issued app/device for contact tracing.

NewbieRunner

In the UK anyone identified as a close contact no longer has to self-isolate for 10 days if they are fully vaccinated or under 18 and have no symptoms though they are advised to have a PCR test.

xooz

On our trip, we took the Binax tests with us. The thinking was that we could use those tests for return. If the Binax test showed positive, we could get a local test (or 2) to confirm whether that was a false positive or not.

Middle_Seat

I think that is a reasonable approach. As I understand it, you have to show a Negative test result to return to the US, not a lack of a Positive result. False positives do happen, so HUCA (Hang Up, Call Again) becomes HUTA (Hang Up, Test Again).

8420PR

Friends tested positive in Mallorca after doing a test before the flight home - and after a bit of a panic and some helpful advice from a check-in agent they booked a small villa with pool in the countryside and a hire car. They took daily tests (bought from pharmacies) until they all tested negative, then got another official test and flew home.

One thing to remember - in some countries the quarantine rules are taken much more seriously than in US and it can result in a big fine or prosecution if you break them. If you took a local administered test (e.g. not the supervised self test from Binax) the health authorities will be informed of your details and might contact you.

erik123

Not really. Best would be a PCR test - not shopping around for a rapid test that shows negative after a few tries.

xooz

I guess my thought was that a couple of days before returning to US:
- Test using Binax. If negative I am good. If not,the Binax test does not notify the local authorities so
- Take local test such as a PCR test. If negative, I am good to go. I suppose I could take a second test as a tie-breaker
- If second test is positive, quarantine per country rules.

Bottom line was to take the "anonymous" test first to be able to have more options to avoid the impact of a false positive, not to try to skate by if I really caught Covid.

MSPeconomist

However, DL requires every passenger to certify at check in that they have not had a positive test result during the last ten days, even for domestic flights.

Yllanes

How is that "fully allowed by the rules"? If they test positive, even if it's a "private" test, they have to notify the health authorities in Italy (or wherever they are) and isolate!

Again, that's not the rule. If you are positive, you have to isolate for at least 10 days.

Depending on where you are in Europe, the local healthcare authorities might have hotels to host you during your mandated isolation.