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Travellers need to be cautious when choosing a Covid test provider before taking a trip.
Most countries currently insist on Covid tests before entry, along with other border control measures. The most common requirement is for passengers to have the rigorous and expensive PCR test.
British Airways’ website links to four different test providers, which provide a discount to its customers for tests that show you’re ‘Fit to Fly’.
One, from a company called Halo Verify, costs £89 if you book it direct, but that price goes down to £75 if you use BA’s discount code.
That compares with rates from £93 to £166 from the other companies that BA highlights. The other companies’ tests also all require you to use the, often uncomfortable, nose and throat swabs.
The new five-day travel quarantine scheme was mired in chaos yesterday as two testing firms pulled out after being swamped with demand.
Following weeks of delay, ministers finally unveiled a list of 11 approved private medical firms where travellers flying into the UK can get a test to cut quarantine time from ten to five days.
The Department for Transport’s ‘test to release’ plan was supposed to help revive the virus-ravaged travel industry ahead of the Christmas period.
Ministers finally unveiled a list of 11 approved private medical firms where travellers flying into the UK can get a test to cut quarantine time from ten to five days. Pictured: Passengers arrive at London s Heathrow Airport
‘Test to Release’ Scheme Goes Live for Travellers Entering England
The Test to Release scheme for travellers entering England went live on Tuesday allowing travellers from countries not on the travel corridor list to halve the mandatory quarantine period if they get a negative test result for the CCP virus after five days.
“The introduction of this day 5 Test to Release scheme is a helpful step in the right direction. It means less time in quarantine,” Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said in a media release on Tuesday.
“But only in return for a negative COVID test,” he said.
The scheme has reportedly got off to a bumpy start, with some test providers according to the BBC, withdrawing from the government’s list of private companies offering tests because they were overwhelmed with requests for bookings.
And this morning it emerged that there were flaws with eight of the 11 providers, with several either out of stock or not yet accepting bookings for tests.
As a result, people trying to travel back from overseas for Christmas may not be able to leave quarantine in time.
Of the eight, Medicspot and Axiom say that test booking is not yet open, but coming soon, while Chronomics, Prenetics, and Nationwide Pathology all ask travellers to register interest.
Oncologica, on the other hand, simply directs people trying to book a test to one of the other providers, Screen 4.
Finally, Halo Verify and Private GP London both say that they are out of stock, with the latter saying that it has been asked to be removed from the “test to release” scheme – on its very first day in operation.