PCR testing
Comments
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I think your daughter was very lucky, there are reports on-line of the 2 day arrival PCR test results taking 4 days to be returned, and this is before the xmas rush.
People coming to the UK to visit friends and relatives over xmas could be in for a very stressful time hanging about waiting for results, are these so called laboratories going to be working on Christmas day/boxing day?, my daughter in Spain does not finish school until the 22nd of Dec, is booked to fly to the UK 23rd Dec, she will probably have to SI until after boxing day if labs are closed or are chocker block with samples waiting to be processed, not a major problem as she will be staying with us, but officially family who live close by should not come visiting until such time as she has had a negative result
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I think the Poland example was ‘Click & Collect’. For many that’s not a practical option so they’ll have to take their chances with skeleton laboratory staffing and Xmas postal arrangements!
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My son and his wife were faced with a similar situation. They had arranged a holiday in Cap Verde which meant they would have returned to the UK on 23rd of December. With a possible delay in test results over Christmas it could have put a kybosh on any Christmas get togethers. They decided to change the dates to May of next year when things will hopefully be better?
David
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There is a company called Express Test who have drive thru centres, one at Gatwick Airport, they are currently guaranteeing a result by 2200 hrs following day, spoke with a manager re Christmas and he said it would be business as normal, take that with a pinch of salt
As for going over there next year, we have ferries booked, but only because they are flexi tickets nearly 2 years old, it may be less stressful to face up to the horrors of the M5 and do a Devon/Cornwall staycation
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They score 4.5 on Trustpilot so should be a good bet. The other one mentioned here ‘Randox’ (mates of Owen Paterson I believe), less so even if prices are good.
I definitely think you should go abroad next year and avoid Devon & Cornwall 😉
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Wise move to postpone.
We have grown up children and grandchildren here in various parts of the UK who are all down with Covid right now and isolating at home. It’s spreading like a bushfire in our own family and some are really ill despite vaccinations.
But then there is the blasé head in the sand attitude of other people who insist they are still going abroad this Christmas, who don’t believe they will catch it while they are away, don’t think they might test positive and be refused a flight home, and don’t know how or where they will isolate overseas if that happens.
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When I was chatting to my son the other day, before he decided to change, his main concern was the possibility of ending up is a quarantine hotel at a cost of £2000 each!!!
Margaret's sister, husband and son all had COVID a couple of weeks ago, the husband even ended up in hospital although he seems fine now. They have hardly changed how they go about life all through the pandemic so I don't think we were surprised they eventually ended up with it. Even the shock of getting COVID and the husband going to hospital also seems to have made little impact on their ongoing lives!!!
David
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June is busy but not peak season here. Peak starts in mid July.
2020 was an exceptional year with early and late being as busy as peak is in 'normal' years. Peak season in 2020 was horrendous.
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I think your daughter was very lucky, there are reports on-line of the 2 day arrival PCR test results taking 4 days to be returned, and this is before the xmas rush.
Rufs, we will see how lucky she was over the next couple of weeks as she's off to Riga on Tuesday and will have to go through the same process again when she gets back.
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For 2 years we have done a staycation for the months of May/June/September in Dorset, Devon, Cornwall, Scotland and Yorkshire, brilliant time in all destinations and some great sites even 2 club sites Malvern and York Beeches, did a couple of lateral flow tests at York Beeches as was going to visit my sister who has some issues, but otherwise no problems no stress, life is what you make it
but we do try to give July a miss 
p.s. recently back from a trip to Spain to do some diy for daughter in new house, no real problems
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Good luck, let us know, last time my Spanish daughter visited she booked 2day /5 day quick release & 8 Day test via Boots cost a fortune and all test results took 48 hrs or more to return, after i complained Boots did refund our money for 5 day quick release, this was during the period when you had to self isolate for 10 days.
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"With a possible delay in test results over Christmas it could have put a kybosh on any Christmas get togethers"
DK, know the feeling, we have a gathering of the clan on the 23rd Dec, very special occasion, booked a room in the local Indian restaurant, am thinking of asking them if they could knock up a take-away for 14 people rather than run the risk of having to cxl , we were all going to do LF tests before attending, but as Spanish daughter does not arrive until 23rd unless the rules change, review 18th Dec, we either cxl or do something at home, but even having at home would break the rules.
might be spending xmas in jail. 0 -
We are currently on Lanzarote, been here 10 days 11 to go.
When we left the UK all we needed was proof of vaccine and a day 2 LFT on return.
Now we have to do a LFT 48 before leaving the island and a day 2 PCR.
None of it is a problem as the island is well set up for the LFTs you get them back in 20 - 25 mins along with a certificate. Day 2 test that was booked back home, the company emailed us as soon as it was announced it would have to be a PCR. The refunded what we had paid back into our bank and offered us PCR tests in place.
The thing that makes me laugh/cry is that we are on an island that is at level 1, so very safe place to be. There are no cases of the new varient on the island and very little of any Covid cases.
Yet we have to undertake to do and pay for 2 lots of testing to get back to the UK, one of the most infected countries in Europe.
As CY said someone is making a lot of money out of this. Will any of it help, cases seem to crop up where there is no trace to others.
Added to the new crazy rules, Spain has now said even children between the ages of 5 and 12 have to be fully vaccinated. Coming from the UK that's impossible, so all those families that were looking forward to Christmas away are now going to have to cancelled.
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Tammy, you assume that you will test negative before you leave your holiday situation and will be able to fly home. I hope you right. It’s an assumption many people make. But I know of a case where that was not so and they could not come back. Good luck.
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There are very few 'supervised' tests - even our local NHS testing centre shuts you in a curtained booth, and provides you with the kit, and instructions. At Birmingham airport on the way to France in June we were given tests and shepherded into separate booths. At Eurofins in September on the return a chap stood by your car. Nobody watched to see if you we actually doing the test or getting a hidden probe out of your pocket. The only time we've had a 'non-self-administered' test was in France, when it was done by a Pharmacist in the back store room of the pharmacy (but she was in full PPE).
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At Gibraltar they’ve insisted on entry test for several months now. You pre-book the test and they process a whole plane load in about 20 minutes. All tests conducted by immigration staff and results/certificate (LFT) texted to you in well under 1 hour.
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Yup and all the drive thru/walk in private centres around Gatwick are already fully booked until the 28th Dec, looks like daughter may have gotten in at Eastleigh (Express Testing), only 20 minutes from us, but that is just for the test, they are still guaranteing results within 24 hrs, at a cost £138 for 2 people
going to be a lot of stressed out people over Christmas0 -
Yeh, £70 seems to be shaping up as the going rate for a PCR.
I can’t help wondering at the size of the mountain of all those discarded LFT cassettes, hopefully they’re recyclable and not too many of them are finding their way to landfill?
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"Yet we have to undertake to do and pay for 2 lots of testing to get back to the UK, one of the most infected countries in Europe"
dont forget the self isolating part, this is going to be the killer, some labs in the UK already taking 4 days to return test results, the nearer we get to Christmas, more people arriving i suspect the bigger the delay
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There’s also the judgement about when to take the test again if you failed the first. At multiples of £70 it’s an expensive business if it keeps coming back positive, but sitting around to give yourself a good margin of time isn’t much fun either.
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