US: Can airport covid testing get people flying again?
Airports and airlines are rushing to offer preflight Covid-19 testing to help passengers avoid 14-day quarantines imposed by certain states and many foreign governments. The goal: to build confidence in travel. Hawaiian Airlines has started offering passengers a $150 at-home saliva test ahead of flights. Passengers self-collect while being watched on a video call and ship the tests overnight. Airports from Oakland, Calif., to Bradley International near Hartford, Conn., are opening testing centers for ticketed passengers. Some offer both the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) swab test, which can take 48 hours to get results, and rapid tests that provide results in 15 minutes but are less accurate. In Alaska, nonresidents who land in Anchorage without negative test results within 72 hours are required to take a $250 test and self-quarantine until negative results are posted. Alaska residents who didn't test before arrival can get tested for free or self-quarantine for 14 days. "We, as an airport, aren't just going to sit around and let this thing take us down. We're going to do everything we can to make this better in some way," says Joe Lopano, CE at Tampa International Airport in Florida. Tampa began offering testing to travelers on Oct. 1. Of the 80 people tested on the first day, one was positive for Covid-19. Passenger testing is seen as a way to limit the spread of Covid-19, but it won't eliminate it. Several Caribbean islands began accepting visitors who had a negative test within 72 hours of arrival, and the number of Covid-19 cases has jumped. The fundamental problem is that someone could get infected after taking the test, and that testing isn't always accurate. Also, the virus may take several days to show up on a test. <br/>
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/news/hot-topics/2020-10-09/general/us-can-airport-covid-testing-get-people-flying-again
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US: Can airport covid testing get people flying again?
Airports and airlines are rushing to offer preflight Covid-19 testing to help passengers avoid 14-day quarantines imposed by certain states and many foreign governments. The goal: to build confidence in travel. Hawaiian Airlines has started offering passengers a $150 at-home saliva test ahead of flights. Passengers self-collect while being watched on a video call and ship the tests overnight. Airports from Oakland, Calif., to Bradley International near Hartford, Conn., are opening testing centers for ticketed passengers. Some offer both the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) swab test, which can take 48 hours to get results, and rapid tests that provide results in 15 minutes but are less accurate. In Alaska, nonresidents who land in Anchorage without negative test results within 72 hours are required to take a $250 test and self-quarantine until negative results are posted. Alaska residents who didn't test before arrival can get tested for free or self-quarantine for 14 days. "We, as an airport, aren't just going to sit around and let this thing take us down. We're going to do everything we can to make this better in some way," says Joe Lopano, CE at Tampa International Airport in Florida. Tampa began offering testing to travelers on Oct. 1. Of the 80 people tested on the first day, one was positive for Covid-19. Passenger testing is seen as a way to limit the spread of Covid-19, but it won't eliminate it. Several Caribbean islands began accepting visitors who had a negative test within 72 hours of arrival, and the number of Covid-19 cases has jumped. The fundamental problem is that someone could get infected after taking the test, and that testing isn't always accurate. Also, the virus may take several days to show up on a test. <br/>
